Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Greenhouse Gas Datum) Regulations 20101

Select Legislative Instrument 2010 No. 29

I, QUENTIN BRYCE, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, make the following Regulations under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006.

Dated 25 February 2010

QUENTIN BRYCE

Governor-General

By Her Excellency’s Command

MARTIN FERGUSON

Minister for Resources and Energy

Contents

 1 Name of Regulations 

 2 Commencement 

 3 Definitions 

 4 Declaration of current datum (Act s 41) 

 5 Documents submitted to responsible Commonwealth Minister             

 6 Documents made or prepared under Act etc 

Schedule 1 Geocentric Datum of Australia 

1 Name of Regulations

  These Regulations are the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Greenhouse Gas Datum) Regulations 2010.

2 Commencement

  These Regulations commence on the day after they are registered.

3 Definitions

  In these Regulations:

Act means the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006.

Geocentric Datum of Australia means the datum described in Schedule 1.

Note 1   For the meaning of block, datum, geographic coordinate, greenhouse gas project inspector, Register and responsible Commonwealth Minister, see section 7 of the Act.

Note 2   For the meaning of greenhouse gas title, see section 38 of the Act.

Note 3   For the meaning of changeover time, current datum and previous datum, see section 41 of the Act.

4 Declaration of current datum (Act s 41)

  For subsection 41 (1) of the Act, for the purposes of describing, in a greenhouse gas title or other instrument under the Act, the position on the surface of the Earth of a point, line or area:

 (a) the current datum is the Geocentric Datum of Australia; and

 (b) the current datum replaces the previous datum.

5 Documents submitted to responsible Commonwealth Minister

 (1) This regulation applies to a record or other document, other than a title or other instrument under the Act, that, at any time after the changeover time, a person gives to the responsible Commonwealth Minister or a greenhouse gas inspector because it is required by, or serves a purpose under, the Act, or regulations or directions made under the Act.

 (2) If the record or other document refers to a geographic coordinate but does not specify a datum, the responsible Commonwealth Minister or the greenhouse gas inspector may:

 (a) accept or consider the record or other document as it is; or

 (b) within 30 days of receiving the record or other document, and by any convenient method, request the person to give the responsible Commonwealth Minister or greenhouse gas inspector, within 14 days, information in writing about the datum that applies to the geographic coordinate.

 (3) If:

 (a) the responsible Commonwealth Minister or greenhouse gas inspector makes a request under paragraph (2) (b); and

 (b) the person does not provide the information in accordance with the request;

the responsible Commonwealth Minister or greenhouse gas inspector may, for that reason, reject or refuse to consider the record or other document mentioned in subregulation (1).

Note   If, for the purposes of a data collection program or an investigation under the Act, a person submits a document that mentions a geographic coordinate but does not specify the datum and, after receiving a request under paragraph (2) (b), the person does not provide the requested details about the datum:

(a) the responsible Commonwealth Minister or greenhouse gas inspector may require that information to be provided under section 725 of the Act; or

(b) the responsible Commonwealth Minister may require it to be provided under section 580 of the Act.

6 Documents made or prepared under Act etc

 (1) This regulation applies to a record or other document, other than a title or other instrument under the Act, that:

 (a) is made because it is required by, or serves a purpose under, the Act, or regulations or directions made under the Act; and

 (b) is made more than 12 months after the changeover time.

 (2) If the document includes information about the position on the surface of the Earth of a point, line or area, and mentions a geographic coordinate, the document does not fulfil the requirement, or serve the purpose, mentioned in paragraph (1) (a) unless:

 (a) the geographic coordinate refers to the current datum; and

 (b) the record or other document specifies that the geographic coordinate refers to the current datum.

Schedule 1 Geocentric Datum of Australia

(regulation 3, definition of Geocentric Datum of Australia)

1 Reference Ellipsoid

  Geodetic Reference System 1980 ellipsoid with a semi major axis of 6 378 137 metres and an inverse flattening of 298.257 222 101.

2 Reference Frame

  The Geocentric Datum of Australia is realised by the coordinates of the following Australian Fiducial Network geodetic stations referred to the Geodetic Reference System 1980 ellipsoid determined within the International Earth Rotation Service Terrestrial Reference Frame 1992 at the epoch of 1994.0.

Note

1. All legislative instruments and compilations are registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments kept under the Legislative Instruments Act 2003. See http://www.frli.gov.au.