Petroleum operations

About petroleum activities

The Northern Territory (NT) owns all petroleum resources - 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.

The Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security administers laws and regulates industry to mitigate and manage risks to the environment posed by onshore petroleum activities.

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

Legislation

Petroleum exploration and production is governed by the following legislation:

  • Petroleum Act 1984 is the principal legislation dealing with onshore petroleum exploration and production in the NT.
  • Petroleum Regulations 2020 outline land access laws for petroleum activities including processes for conducting low impact activities and airborne operations, and obtaining necessary land access agreements. The regulations also detail content requirement for resource management, activity and infrastructure plans, activity and incident notifications, reporting and other requirements.
  • Petroleum (Transitional) Regulations 2023 - provide transitional arrangements for changes to the petroleum legislation made in 2023. These regulations will be repealed after 2 years.
  • Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act 1981 caters for tenure, exploration and production activities in the 3 nautical mile strip of NT coastal waters.
  • Petroleum (Environment) Regulations 2016 ensures that regulated activities are carried out in a manner consistent with the principles of ecologically sustainable development and that environmental risks and impacts associated with onshore petroleum development are mitigated and managed to levels as low as reasonably practicable and acceptable.

Exploration and production in waters beyond the 3-mile limit comes under the Australian Government's National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator (NOPTA).

For more information about offshore petroleum, go to the Australian Government's NOPTA website.

Petroleum titles

Before any petroleum exploration or production can commence, you must have a petroleum title.

Read more about petroleum titles .

Approval for exploration and production

When you have been granted a petroleum title, your exploration or production activities must be conducted under approved plans.

Read more about approval of resource management, activity and infrastructure plans and petroleum pipelines .

Report an activity

If you witness any activity which concerns you, you can report it to the Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade by calling 08 8999 6350 or emailing dittpetroleum.operations@nt.gov.au.

The department can then investigate the issues you raise.

You may choose to notify the department anonymously or leave your name and phone number if you would like someone from the department to get back to you.


Types of petroleum activities

A petroleum company may want to access your land to carry out:

  • low impact activities
  • regulated operations.

Low impact activities are a type of exploration activity. They have no impact, or low impact, on land.

Low impact activities include:

  • preliminary activities such as taking:
    • water samples
    • rock samples without using heavy machinery
    • soil samples to a depth of up to four metres
  • carrying out surveys including aerial surveys that do not involve:
    • clearing any vegetation
    • permanent installation of any infrastructure or equipment on land
  • other activities that have no or low impact on land, such as testing, monitoring or maintaining infrastructure without the use of heavy equipment
  • airborne operations over a permit area or licence area by aircraft (including helicopter) or drone
  • driving a vehicle on land, except a heavy vehicle, to carry out low impact activities
  • taking workers to and from a location of a permit area or licence area
  • landing a helicopter on any part of a permit area or licence area.

Low impact activities don't impact or cause a risk to the environment. They are not a regulated activity under the law.

For a company to carry out regulated operations, it must have an exploration permit, a retention licence or a production licence.

Regulated operations include:

  • clearing vegetation
  • ground-based seismic surveys
  • drilling an exploration well
  • drilling a development well to recover petroleum.

These activities require an approved environment management plan from the environment minister.

Carrying out petroleum activities on your land

If a petroleum company wants to carry out low impact activities on your land, it must:

  • give you 14 days' written notice and
  • provide information about its intended activities.

If a petroleum company wants to carry out regulated activities on your land, it must:

  • reach a land access agreement with you
  • give you 14 days' written notice and provide details of its intended activities.

Exploration does not guarantee that production will happen.

If a company discovers petroleum while carrying out activities, it has a right to apply for a production licence. This is a separate approval process from an exploration permit being granted.

If the production is not commercially viable at the time of discovery, the company may apply for a retention licence.


Reach a land access agreement to carry out petroleum operations

If you want to carry out regulated petroleum operations in the Northern Territory (NT), you must apply for land access.

This means negotiating and reaching a land access agreement with the landholder whose land you want to access.

This is required under the Petroleum Regulations 2020.

You must also get the land access agreement approved by the Minister for Mining and Industry or their delegate.

It is an offence to start any regulated petroleum operations before the agreement is approved.

Find out how to reach a land access agreement as a landholder.

Read the guide to land access in the NT.

Guide to land access in the NT PDF (1.4 MB)
Guide to land access in the NT DOCX (666.2 KB)

Before you begin

You must complete this process if you want to access land held under:

  • a pastoral lease
  • a Crown lease
  • NT freehold.

The landholder can be the owner or occupier of the land.

Who is a landowner or occupier

The landowner may own:

  • a freehold title
  • a pastoral or Crown lease.

The land occupier may hold:

  • a lease or sublease over a freehold title
  • a sublease or under lease over a pastoral or Crown lease.

When you don't need a land access agreement

You don’t need a land access agreement if the land you want to access is:

  • vacant Crown land
  • Aboriginal land.

You also don’t need a land access agreement with native title parties.

If you want to carry out low impact activities including airborne operations, you must follow a separate process.

What to include in the agreement

The land access agreement must contain minimum protections for the landholder.

These protections should address issues such as:

  • livestock disturbance
  • weeds
  • access points
  • infrastructure
  • damage and repairs
  • compensation
  • legal liabilities and indemnities
  • costs and guarantees.

For more information, read schedule 2 of the Petroleum Regulations 2020.

You can also negotiate other provisions and include these in the agreement.

Term of a land access agreement

The term of a land access agreement cannot exceed the term balance of your petroleum title.

For example, if you are granted an exploration permit for 5 years, the term of your agreement can’t exceed your permit’s expiry date.

Start negotiations

To start negotiations, a petroleum company must follow the steps below:

To notify the landholder, follow these steps:

Step 1a. Fill in the negotiation notice DOCX (70.5 KB).

You must include the following information:

  • a plan and description of the land you want access to
  • your petroleum interest
  • activities you want to carry out
  • how long the activities will take
  • your contact details
  • a statement that you agree to pay costs reasonably and necessarily incurred by the landholder.

You may also choose to provide the landholder with a draft land access agreement.

Step 1b. Issue the notice to the landholder.

If the landholder is the occupier of the land, you must:

  • provide a copy of the negotiation notice to the landowner and
  • explain that you are seeking a land access agreement with the land occupier.

You should provide the copy within 14 days of giving it to the land occupier.

You must notify the Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade chief executive officer within 7 days of issuing the notice.

To notify, submit a copy of the notice to the Land Access team.

Once you have issued the notice, you and the landholder can start negotiating.

Negotiations must be for at least 60 days but can be for longer if you both agree.

A land access agreement must be:

  • in writing and
  • signed by both parties.

If you reach an agreement

You must get your land access agreement approved by the Minister for Mining and Industry or their delegate.

The NT Government is not a party to the agreement but must ensure it meets the minimum requirements under the Petroleum Regulations 2020.

If you can't reach an agreement

Find out what to do if you can't agree on land access.

If you breach an agreement

If you breach a land access agreement or the Petroleum Regulations 2020, you may:

If your agreement is terminated, you will need to stop any regulated petroleum operations you are conducting over subject land within your title area.

Contact

For more information, contact the Land Access team.


Recover petroleum during appraisal stage

To show that a discovery of petroleum is commercially viable, you'll generally need to carry out extended well testing.

Petroleum recovered during extended well testing can either be:

  • vented or flared, in line with relevant regulatory requirements or
  • subject to ministerial approval under section 57AAA of the Petroleum Act 1984, beneficially used for purposes such as electricity generation for your own operations, sold or gifted to third parties.

If you hold an exploration permit or retention licence, you can apply to the Minister for Mining and Industry to recover petroleum on an appraisal basis.

How to apply

To apply to recover petroleum on an appraisal basis, follow these steps:

Step 1. Prepare your application

Prepare your application based on the application guideline PDF (354.9 KB).

Section 57AAA of the Petroleum Act 1984 outlines what you need to include in the application, and the matters the minister needs to consider before making a decision.

Your application must include:

  • details of the proposed extended well testing, including the objectives of the test
  • details of the design, construction, operation and decommissioning of the temporary or semi-permanent appraisal production infrastructure
  • the proposed decommissioning security for the appraisal production infrastructure
  • a timetable for the proposed works
  • evidence of an agreement under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (Cth) or the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth)
  • any other information specified in the guidelines or required by the minister.

Step 2. Fill in the application form

Recovery of petroleum on an appraisal basis form PDF (614.1 KB)
Recovery of petroleum on an appraisal basis form DOCX (137.0 KB)

Step 3. Submit your application

Submit the completed application via email or post and pay the application fee. An invoice will be raised on request.

Email: dittpetroleumoperations@nt.gov.au

Post:
Petroleum Operations
GPO Box 4550
Darwin NT 0801

If your application is approved

If your application is approved, you must not start work until:


Petroleum operations fees and levies

The Northern Territory (NT) Government has implemented a full cost recovery system for the regulation of the onshore petroleum industry.

Cost recovery ensures that regulatory agencies are resourced enough to perform statutory functions.

For more information, read:

Fees and levies for onshore petroleum development in the NT PDF (296.4 KB)
Fees and levies for onshore petroleum development in the NT DOCX (70.4 KB)

Read below to find out about new and revised fees and levies.

Revision of existing fees

Fees have been revised to reflect costs associated with providing services.

This includes administration of petroleum titles, which covers the grant, renewal and variation of:

  • exploration permits
  • retention licences
  • production licences.

Find out more about petroleum titles fees.

Fees for resource management, activity and infrastructure plans

Application fees apply for assessment of:

  • well operations management plans (WOMPS)
  • petroleum surface infrastructure plans
  • field management plans.

These are administered by the Department of Industry, Tourism and Trade (DITT).

How fees are calculated

Fees are complexity based. This ensures the cost of application accurately reflects the resources required to assess and approve the plans.

Fees also apply to plan revisions.

To find out about the fees and calculation processes you need when submitting for assessment, read schedule 1A of the Petroleum Regulations 2020.

Application fees will be charged at time of lodgement and assessment will not start until the fee is paid.

Fees for environment management plans (EMPs)

Application fees apply for assessment of EMPs.

These are administered by the Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security (DEPWS).

How fees are calculated

Fees are complexity based. This ensures the cost of the application accurately reflects the resources required to assess and approve the EMP.

Fees also apply for EMP revisions.

To find out about the fees and calculation processes you need when submitting an environment management plan for assessment, read schedule 1B of the Petroleum Regulations 2020.

Application fees will be charged at time of lodgement and assessment will not start until the fee is paid.

Monitoring and compliance levy

This levy has been introduced to recover the costs of monitoring and compliance by DITT and DEPWS.

It is payable annually for each approved EMP.

How the monitoring and compliance levy is calculated

The levy must be calculated based on the number and type of activities approved in an active EMP that will be carried out in the relevant financial year.

EMPs are used to calculate the levy because they address all regulated activities, including those associated with wells and other petroleum infrastructure.

An EMP that includes different types of regulated activities over a larger number of titles will generally result in a higher levy.

The levy is capped so that petroleum interest holders will only pay for the cost of monitoring and compliance for a regulated activity for a maximum of 2 titles.

There's also a cap on levy ratings that will be applied to different activity categories. For example, the same levy amount is applied for the operation of 4 or more wells.

This accounts for efficiencies that apply to the regulator's costs of monitoring and compliance.

Strategic Regional Environmental and Baseline Assessment (SREBA) - uplift factor

An uplift factor has been established to ensure that money expended on a SREBA is funded by industry.

The SREBA for the Beetaloo Sub-basin provides information necessary for sound decisions to be made about the development of any onshore shale gas industry in the region. It also provides baseline data as a reference point for ongoing monitoring.

Regulated activities in the Beetaloo Sub-basin designated area will incur an uplift factor to recover the cost that have already been incurred by the NT Government to deliver this SREBA.

The uplift factor will initially be set at 30% of amount of monitoring and compliance levy payable.

The uplift factor and period for recovery of the SREBA costs will be reviewed after 3 years.

The minister determines the designated area that applies to the SREBA uplift factor. All petroleum interests within this boundary, in whole or part must pay the uplift factor.

Get a map of the SREBA uplift designated area PDF (110.1 KB).

Find out more about SREBA, go to the DEPWS website.

When to pay

From 1 July 2023, you must pay a monitoring and compliance levy yearly.

The levy must be paid by 31 July of the financial year that the levy relates.

Petroleum interest holders who have approved an EMP must submit an annual returns form to inform levy payment before the end of each financial year.

If a new activity is approved in an EMP that same year, an additional levy must be paid within 30 days of the approval of that activity and will be calculated on a pro-rata basis.

To find out about the monitoring and compliance levy, read part VD of the Petroleum Act 1984.

Orphan well levy

The orphan well levy was established to ensure that the long-term monitoring, management and remediation of orphan wells in the Northern Territory is funded by industry.

Read more about the orphan well levy.

The orphan well levy must be paid by all petroleum interest holders, including those holding exploration permits or retention licences, and irrespective of whether or not there are orphan wells on the title or titles.

How the orphan well levy is calculated

The orphan well levy is calculated as an amount payable per graticular block held by an interest holder at the start of the financial year.

An invoice will then be generated for payment of the orphan well levy.

When to pay

From 1 July 2023, you must pay an orphan well levy yearly.

The levy must be paid by 31 July of the financial year that the levy relates.

An invoice will be generated for payment of the orphan well levy.

To find out more about the orphan well levy, read part VE of the Petroleum Act 1984.

How to pay fees and levies

You can pay using one of the following methods:

  • credit card (Visa or Mastercard)
  • direct debit - call DITT on 08 8999 5263 for account details
  • cheque or money order made payable to the Receiver of Territory Monies.

An invoice will be raised on request.


Securities for onshore petroleum

The Northern Territory (NT) Government requires financial assurance from the onshore petroleum industry before any works are carried out.

Interest holders must pay securities for petroleum infrastructure decommissioning, and environmental rehabilitation and remediation.

Examples of acceptable security may be a cash bond posted to the government and held in trust, a bank guarantee or a surety bond.

The government holds securities to cover the costs of these works should a title holder fail to meet their legal obligations.

When an interest holder completes these works to the required standard, the relevant security will be returned.

Petroleum infrastructure decommissioning securities

When onshore petroleum infrastructure, including wells, is proposed for development in the NT, an appropriate security amount must be calculated and paid before works commence.

Wells

A decommissioning security must be paid before drilling activities commence.

The amount of security required for well decommissioning must be determined using a methodology approved by the Minister for Mining and Industry.

This will take into account the variable decommissioning costs required for different well types.

Well decommissioning requirements and standards must be identified in an approved well operations management plan (WOMP).

Infrastructure required to recover appraisal petroleum

Interest holders must pay security before any infrastructure is used for activities to recover the appraisal petroleum.

Appraisal production infrastructure is temporary or semi‑permanent surface infrastructure on an exploration permit area or retention licence area.

It is used for extracting, processing, refining, storing, transporting or using appraisal petroleum to allow for its beneficial use. It does not include a pipeline defined by the Energy Pipelines Act 1981.

The government retains the funds until the interest holder decommissions the facilities as required. The full security is then returned.

If the appraisal activity is successful and commercial production of petroleum is proven, the interest holder must apply for a range of approvals including a:

At this time, the securities required will be revised. Petroleum surface infrastructure also requires a security.

Petroleum surface infrastructure

Interest holders must pay a decommissioning security before commencing construction of approved petroleum surface infrastructure such as a processing plant.

The amount of security to be held will reflect the scale and type of surface infrastructure and operations proposed.

This detail will be included in the application for approval of the holder's petroleum surface infrastructure plan.

The final amount of security required must be determined using a methodology approved by the Minister for Mining and Industry.

Environmental securities

Interest holders must pay environmental securities before commencing any regulated activities approved by an environment management plan (EMP). Read about EMPs on the Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security (DEPWS) website.

The security amount required must be determined using a calculator approved by the Environment Minister. Get the calculator on the DEPWS website.

Once any environmental impacts or damage resulting from a regulated activity has been fully remediated or rehabilitated, a petroleum interest holder can apply to the Environment Minister for release of the associated security.

Environmental securities can provide for:

  • specific costs, liabilities and risks associated with environmental impact and harm resulting from activities in an approved EMP, including costs for remediation and rehabilitation
  • costs to manage residual risk of environmental harm, including monitoring, after remediation and rehabilitation has been undertaken
  • a contingency amount to reduce the risk that the value of the security is inadequate.

Payment of securities

The Minister for Mining and Industry holds all securities, including environmental securities. However, the amount of environmental security, and its use or release, is advised by the Environment Minister.

Security amounts

The government is required to publish security amounts online under the Petroleum Act 1984.

Read more about securities held for petroleum operations.

Insurance

The government requires that insurance is held in relation to all wells and petroleum surface infrastructure.

Insurance policies must be:

  • issued by an appropriately regulated entity and
  • contain a minimum level of coverage for each unexpected incident as determined by the Minister for Mining and Industry.

Interest holders must provide policies when submitting an application for a WOMP or revision and when submitting an application for a petroleum surface infrastructure plan or revision.

Evidence of ongoing and appropriate cover must be provided with every notification for drilling an additional well and annually as the policy is renewed.


Report a petroleum discovery

Find out about the reporting requirements for petroleum discovery.

It's considered to be a discovery when:

  • the presence of petroleum in a reservoir (an accumulation) is indicated during drilling
  • and the petroleum is shown to be producible.

You must notify the minister within 3 days of the discovery, and before making any public announcement, using the approved form.

You must also provide an evaluation of the discovery within 3 months of the discovery using the approved form.

Petroleum resource estimates must be reported in accordance with the Society of Petroleum Engineers' (SPE) petroleum resources management system. To find out more, go to the SPE website.

If a study results in a revised estimate of petroleum in a particular pool, you must provide a report to the Minister using the approved form.

How to submit the report

You must email your notification or report to dittpetroleumoperations@nt.gov.au.

Contact

For more information, call the Energy Division on 08 8999 5388.


Report a petroleum operations incident

Under the Petroleum Regulations 2020, you must report any serious and reportable incidents that occur on your petroleum interest to the minister.

You must retain all incident records and reports for at least 5 years after the incident occurred.

You may be prosecuted for failing to comply with incident reporting and recordkeeping obligations.

Serious incidents

A serious incident is an incident arising from activities conducted under a permit or licence as a result of which any of the following occur:

  • a person suffers serious injury or illness or is killed
  • an uncontrolled fire or explosion occurs
  • an uncontrolled flow of formation fluids or well fluids into the environment or into a separate underground formation occurs
  • there is a failure of, or damage to barriers, infrastructure or systems that leads to or could lead to a loss of integrity in a well or petroleum surface infrastructure that requires emergency intervention
  • a blowout preventer, pressure control equipment or emergency shutdown system is activated
  • both primary and secondary well barriers are no longer intact
  • the security of national gas supply is prejudices or an imminent risk to the security of natural gas supply arises.

How to report

You must:

If the serious incident results from a failure of the integrity of a well or surface infrastructure, you must provide a written investigation report, including all related documents, within one month after the incident occurred.

Reportable incidents

A reportable incident is an incident arising from activities conducted under a permit or licence as a result of which any of the following occur:

  • immediate action is required to prevent a serious incident
  • a single barrier or control remains intact so as to prevent loss of integrity in a well or petroleum surface infrastructure and no other barrier or control exists
  • equipment or systems that are designed to reduce the consequences of a serious incident fail or are compromised
  • a designed operating envelope is exceeded.

How to report

Fill in an incident notification form and email it to DITTPetroleumOperations@nt.gov.au within 72 hours.

You must use the approved form and include all the information set out in the Petroleum Regulations 2020.

Other incident reporting

You may be required to report the same incident to another agency under NT legislation.

Reportable and recordable incidents under the Petroleum (Environment) Regulations 2016 must be reported to the Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security (DEPWS).

To find out more, visit the DEPWS  website.

Serious injuries, dangerous incidents or a death at a workplace must also be notified to NT WorkSafe under the Work Health and Safety (National Uniform Legislation) Act 2011.

For more information, contact NT WorkSafe on 1800 019 115 or visit the NT WorkSafe website.


Environmental management

Environmental management of petroleum activities is regulated by the Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security (DEPWS).

The Petroleum (Environment) Regulations 2016, administered by DEPWS, ensure the environment is protected in an area of petroleum exploration or production.

Under the regulations, environment management plans must demonstrate that all environmental risks and impacts from regulated petroleum activities have been identified and reduced as low as reasonably practicable and to an acceptable level.

For more information, go to the DEPWS website.


Managing orphan wells

All onshore petroleum wells in the Northern Territory (NT) must be monitored and managed, either by the relevant petroleum interest holder or the government. This includes decommissioned wells that have been permanently plugged and abandoned.

The NT Government is responsible for monitoring and managing wells which are no longer associated with a petroleum title. These are called ‘orphan wells’.

Orphan well levy and fund

Under the Petroleum Act 1984, interest holders must pay a non‑refundable orphan well levy for the long-term monitoring, management and remediation of orphan wells in the NT.

Money collected under the orphan well levy is held in the orphan well fund and can only be used for orphan wells.

This means that while the government manages the work program associated with orphan wells, the ongoing cost of the work is funded by petroleum interest holders in the NT.

The orphan well levy must be paid from 1 July 2023.

More information will be made available on an annual basis from 30 September 2023 on:

  • how much orphan well levy has been collected
  • associated balance of the orphan well fund
  • work and activities funded by the orphan well levy.

Existing orphan wells

There are 113 known orphan wells in the NT, dating back to the 1960s.

The NT Government has undertaken a comprehensive historical analysis of each of these wells and calculated a risk rating for each one.

The risk rating considers the depth of the well and the nature of the underlying reservoir. Some exploration wells were unsuccessful because they never intercepted petroleum bearing layers. These wells pose very limited to no risk.

An assessment of historical construction and decommissioning was also undertaken, where records existed. This process included an analysis of evidence of well barriers placed during construction and abandonment, including casings and cement operations.

Each orphan well has been located and inspected in the field to confirm the risk rating. Gas detectors are used on site to test for methane. The monitoring process used has been informed by the CSIRO.

Orphan wells were then classified as high or low risk.

For high risk orphan wells, a barrier analysis and further assessment will be undertaken to determine if remedial work is necessary.

Future orphan wells

Strict laws have been introduced to ensure that any future orphan wells accepted by the government when a title is surrendered will have been decommissioned to a very high standard.

As a result, future orphan wells will be unlikely to require management interventions.

Interest holder responsibilities

When a well is no longer required, the interest holder is required by law to decommission those wells. For example, if there is insufficient hydrocarbon potential (exploration wells), or when production has drained the reservoir (production wells).

The interest holder is also responsible for the ongoing monitoring of decommissioned wells to ensure the process was successful and there are no leaks from the disused well.

If a loss of integrity is detected after a well has been decommissioned, the holder must notify the department as per the approved well operations management plan (WOMP).

If necessary, the WOMP will be reviewed to include appropriate diagnostics, repairs and monitoring. Once appropriate remedial works are approved, the interest holder is obligated by law to conduct all the works required to make the decommissioned well safe.

The holder remains responsible for decommissioned wells until their title, or part of their title, is surrendered. However, no decommissioned well can be relinquished to government until it has been successfully repaired.

Security

The Petroleum Act 1984 also establishes the requirement for petroleum infrastructure decommissioning securities.

This means that, in the unlikely event that a petroleum interest holder goes into liquidation, the minister can draw on those securities to decommission wells or make them safe.


Hydraulic fracturing

The Scientific Inquiry into Hydraulic Fracturing in the Northern Territory (NT) released its final report in March 2018.

The inquiry’s recommendations were accepted and the moratorium on unconventional shale gas developments in the NT was lifted.

In May 2023, the NT Government released the Scientific Inquiry into Hydraulic Fracturing Final Implementation Report which explained how the inquiry’s recommendations had been met in full. Read the report on the hydraulic fracturing in the NT website.

As a result of the inquiry’s recommendations, the government made significant changes to the NT's regulatory environment.

These include significant amendments to multiple pieces of legislation including the:

To find out more, go to the hydraulic fracturing in the NT website.


Petroleum operations forms and guidelines

Find forms and guidelines to support petroleum activities below.

Exploration, production and resource management

Topic or document What it is for
Induced seismicity management guideline PDF (401.7 KB)
Induced seismicity management guideline DOCX (767.6 KB)
Guideline on an induced seismicity management plan for petroleum activities.

Well plan summary submission guideline  PDF (259.4 KB)
Well plan summary submission guideline  DOCX (650.6 KB)

Guideline on the submission requirements of a well plan summary.

Well barrier integrity validation reporting guideline PDF (407.8 KB)
Well barrier integrity validation reporting guideline DOCX (764.4 KB)

Guideline on the requirements for well barrier integrity validation reporting.

Technical work program development guideline PDF (626.0 KB)
Technical work program development guideline  DOCX (51.9 KB)

Guideline on how to develop a technical work program.

Variation suspension and extension guideline PDF (623.5 KB)
Variation suspension and extension guideline DOCX (53.6 KB)

Guideline on how to apply for a variation, suspension or extension.

Renew exploration permit guideline PDF (614.2 KB)
Renew exploration permit guideline  DOCX (52.1 KB)

Guideline on how to renew a petroleum exploration permit.

Apply for or renew retention licence guideline PDF (625.7 KB)
Apply for or renew retention licence guideline DOCX (55.9 KB)

Guideline on how to apply for or renew a retention licence.

Guideline for reporting a petroleum discovery PDF (230.6 KB)
Guideline for reporting a petroleum discovery DOCX (644.0 KB)

Guideline on the reporting requirements for petroleum discovery.

Principles when using Aboriginal Interpreters Guideline for consulting Aboriginal people with a first language other than English.

Reporting

Name of form or document What is it for

Guidelines for Northern Territory Petroleum Reporting and Data Submission DOCX (871.4 KB)
Guidelines for Northern Territory Petroleum Reporting and Data Submission PDF (664.2 KB)

Guidelines on geoscience reporting and data submission.

Petroleum core submission form DOCX (135.4 KB)
Petroleum core submission form  PDF (429.5 KB)

Form to use to submit a petroleum core sample.

Geological sample submission procedure (core and cuttings) DOCX (741.6 KB)
Geological sample submission procedure (core and cuttings) PDF (816.2 KB)

Follow these technical instruction for submitting drill cores samples to the department.

Local benefit report for onshore gas service and supply guidelines PDF (227.0 KB)
Local benefit report for onshore gas service and supply guidelines DOCX (647.2 KB)

Local benefit report for onshore gas service and supply template PDF (209.3 KB)
Local benefit report for onshore gas service and supply template DOCX (68.0 KB)

Guidelines on submission of a local benefit report.



Template to submit a local benefit report.

Environmental management

For forms and guidelines on environmental management, go to the Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security website.