Petroleum (Submerged Lands) (Production Licence Fees)

No. 121 of 1967

An Act to provide for the payment of Fees in respect of Licences to recover Petroleum from Submerged Lands adjacent to the Australian Coast and to the Coasts of certain Territories of the Commonwealth.

[Assented to 22 November 1967]

BE it enacted by the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty, the Senate, and the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Australia, as follows:—

Short title.

1. This Act may be cited as the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) (Production Licence Fees) Act 1967.

Commencement.

2. This Act shall come into operation on the day on which it receives the Royal Assent.

Incorporation.

3. The Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act 1967 is incorporated and shall be read as one with this Act.

Licence fees.

4.—(1.) There is payable to the Designated Authority by a licensee, in respect of each year of the term of the licence, a fee calculated at the rate of Three thousand dollars for each of the blocks to which the licence relates at the commencement of that year.

(2.) A fee referred to in the last preceding sub-section is payable within one month after—

(a) in the case of the first year of the term of the licence—the day on which that term commenced; and

(b) in the case of a year of the term of the licence other than the first—the anniversary of that day.

Penalty for late payment.

5. Where the liability of a licensee to pay a fee referred to in the last preceding section is not discharged at or before the time when the fee is payable, there is payable to the Designated Authority by the licensee an additional amount calculated at the rate of one-third of one per centum per day upon the amount of the fee from time to time remaining unpaid, to be computed from the time when the fee became payable until it is paid.

Provisions with respect to Barracouta and Marlin Fields Production Licences.

6.—(1.) The following provisions of a licence referred to in section 146 of the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act 1967 that is to say, clauses 3 and 4, shall be deemed to have effect as conditions of the licence as the licence has effect by reason of that section.

(2.) A reference in any provision referred to in the last preceding sub-section to the Minister shall be read as a reference to the Designated Authority.

(3.) Sections 4 and 5 of this Act do not have effect in relation to a licence to which this section applies.

Fees and penalties debts due to the Commonwealth.

7. The following are debts due by the licensee to the Commonwealth and are recoverable in a court of competent jurisdiction:—

(a) a fee under section 4 of this Act;

(b) a fee payable by reason of the last preceding section;

(c) an amount payable under section 5 of this Act; and

(d) an amount payable by reason of the last preceding section by reason of late payment of a fee referred to in paragraph (b) of this section.