About petroleum titles

The Northern Territory (NT) owns all reserves of petroleum - both onshore and in coastal waters in the NT.

The Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade administers and regulates petroleum tenure and activities in these areas.

This includes petroleum resource exploration and development and the construction and operation of oil and gas transmission pipelines.

The petroleum titles are governed by the following legislation:

• the Petroleum Act 1984 which is the principal legislation dealing with petroleum tenure, exploration and production activities onshore and inland waters of the NT
• the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act 1981 which caters for tenure, exploration and production activities in the 3 nautical mile strip of NT coastal waters.

Petroleum titles in waters beyond the 3 mile limit come under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage Act 2006 (Cth). They are administered by the National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator (NOPTA).

For more information about offshore petroleum, go to the NOPTA website.

Types of petroleum titles

There are 3 main types of petroleum titles:

• petroleum exploration permit
• petroleum retention licence or petroleum retention lease
• petroleum production licence.

General information on the titles is provided below.

For their purpose, term and numbers of blocks, read more in the summary of petroleum title types.

Titles for exploration

You must hold a petroleum exploration permit to explore for petroleum (oil and gas) in the NT.

The permit gives you the exclusive right to explore for petroleum on your permit area. If approved by the minister under the Petroleum Act 1984, you may recover petroleum on an appraisal basis from the permit area.

The permit allows you to carry out:

• exploratory operations for petroleum
• operations to establish the nature and extent of a petroleum resource you discover and the feasibility of production.

Exploration activities includes:

• airborne gravity and magnetic surveys
• ground-based seismic surveys
• well drilling.

When applying for an exploration permit, you must be aware of areas where the minister is unable to grant an exploration permit - such as reserves declared under the Petroleum Act 1984.

Additionally, before grant, the minister will need to comply with processes under the following legislation:

• Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976
• Native Title Act 1993.

Read more about how to apply for a petroleum exploration permit.

Read more about petroleum reserved blocks.

Titles for retention and production

If you discover petroleum through a petroleum exploration permit, you can apply for a production licence. If the discovery is not yet commercially viable, you can apply  for a retention licence or lease.

These titles apply to both onshore and coastal water discoveries.

Retention licence/lease

You can apply for a retention licence or lease when you discover petroleum resources that have development potential, and are not currently commercially viable, but are likely to be viable within 10 to 15 years.

A licence or lease has an initial term of 5 years. It can be renewed for further 5-year periods provided the resource is still not commercially viable.

The licence or lease gives you the right to undertake operations and works to evaluate the development potential of the petroleum discovered on the interest area. If approved under the Petroleum Act 1984, you may recover petroleum on an appraisal basis from the retention licence area.

If you hold a retention licence or lease, you're expected to actively work towards making the discovered resource commercially viable. Special conditions to ensure this happens may be attached to the licence or lease.

Read about how to apply for a retention licence or lease.

Production licence

A petroleum production licence gives you the right to explore, test for and produce petroleum from within a licence area.

You have the right to carry out operations to recover petroleum within a licence area e.g. drilling a development well.

You must carry out any operations in accordance with an approved resource management, activity and infrastructure plan.

The initial term for a production licence is 21 or 25 years. A licence can be renewed for further 21 or 25 year periods.

Read more about how to apply for a production licence.

Conditions on a petroleum title

There are common conditions which apply to all petroleum titles in the NT as well as conditions that are specific to each type of permit, licence or lease.

For tenure, exploration and production activities on land and in inland waters, you must follow the requirements of the Petroleum Act 1984.

For tenure, exploration and production activities in coastal waters up to 3 miles from the coast, you must follow the requirements of the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act 1981.

You must also abide by the associated regulations and any special directions or conditions attached to your title. This includes the Petroleum (Environment) Regulations 2016 and the Petroleum Regulations 2020.

General conditions

Once you have been granted a petroleum title, you must:

• actively conduct authorised activities in the title area
• conduct operations in accordance with good oilfield practice and the approved technical works program
• comply with all requirements under the applicable laws and any other laws in force in the NT
• comply with other title conditions imposed at the time your title is granted.

You must not do any of the following:

• disturb improvements or existing roads without the written consent of the landowner
• use water that a landowner has artificially conserved without the owner's written permission - e.g. dam
• interfere with any animals owned by or under the control of the landowner.