Australia urged to introduce more regulations for offshore development

At the AUSMARINE Conference and Exhibition in Perth, Australia, a Australian Marine Environment Protection Association ( AUSMEPA ) presentation by Michael Julian and Kerry Dwyer on Marine Environmental Protection in the Indian Ocean and Internationally urged the Federal Government to introduce mandatory regulations requiring compliance monitoring by regulatory authorities for offshore petroleum exploration and development.

The presentation looked at some of the evidence presented to the Commission of Inquiry into the Montara wellhead platform explosion off north western Australia, which occurred on August 21, 2009. While the government is still to make public the Commission’s report, evidence presented to the inquiry is available on the inquiry website.

Michael Julian said the evidence clearly demonstrates that current legislation is inadequate in that no compliance monitoring is either required or undertaken by the regulator to ensure the exploration and development company complies with the Environment Impact Statement for the drilling operations.

With increased petroleum and gas exploration in the Indian Ocean off Australia’s coastline there is increased risk of further incidents, which could cause great harm to the marine environment.

The joint presentation also looks at the similarities in the evidence presented at various inquiries into the ‘Deepwater Horizon’ drilling rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year. Findings of these inquiries have also demonstrated inadequate compliance monitoring by the regulator. The United States has already taken steps to address this matter, but Australia has yet to do so.

The AUSMARINE presentation points out that if rig explosions and major oil spills can occur off the coastlines of two of the most technically advanced countries in oil exploration, what hope is there for developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region and globally, where regulatory requirements and local experience is much less.

AUSMEPA also urged the Federal Government, together with other countries, including the United States, to take appropriate action to establish an international regulatory regime for offshore petroleum exploration and development operations.

Such a regime could be undertaken by the United Nation’s International Maritime Organisation (IMO), which has had a dramatic impact in reducing pollution of the sea from ship operations in the past three decades.

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