Overview
The Future Gas Strategy maps the Australian Government's plan for how gas will support our economy's transition to net zero in partnership with the world. The strategy is the government's plan for gas production and consumption in Australia. It adopts 6 principles to help guide the strategy's aims and outlines immediate actions that arise from the principles.
Two of the strategy's immediate actions include:
update Commonwealth retention lease policies to encourage more timely development of existing gas discoveries and consider a firmer 'use it or lose it' policy
work with regulators and industry to reduce and, where possible, eliminate venting and flaring of gas, unless required for safety purposes.
The government has reviewed some of Australia's offshore oil and gas policy settings. This review will help fulfil immediate action items and ensure policy settings align with the government's Future Gas Strategy.
Offshore guidelines
The government has reviewed the offshore policy settings outlined in the:
exploration work-bid
declaration of location
retention lease guidelines.
Proposed changes will ensure there is alignment with the government's Future Gas Strategy
Consultation documents
Draft Guideline: Offshore Petroleum Exploration – work-bid [524KB PDF] [177B DOCX]
Draft Guideline: Offshore Petroleum Declaration of Location [440KB PDF] [320KB DOCX]
Draft Guideline: Offshore Petroleum Retention Lease [428KB PDF] [209KB DOCX]
Venting and flaring
The strategy commits the government to work with regulators and industry to reduce and where possible eliminate venting and flaring of gas, unless required for safety purposes.
As a first step to this work, the government has developed a draft policy statement. The draft looks at the management of venting and flaring of gas associated with offshore petroleum facilities in Commonwealth waters.