PETROLEUM AND GAS (PRODUCTION AND SAFETY) ACT 2004 - SECT 99 Minister’s power to decide excluded land

PETROLEUM AND GAS (PRODUCTION AND SAFETY) ACT 2004 - SECT 99

99 Minister’s power to decide excluded land

(1) The Minister may decide excluded land for an authority to prospect or proposed authority to prospect.

(2) However, the power under subsection (1) may be exercised only when the Minister is deciding whether to—

(a) grant or renew the authority; or

(b) approve any later work program for the authority.

(3) However, excluded land—

(a) must be within the original notional sub-blocks of the authority; and

(b) can not be a whole block.

(4) For subsection (3) (a) , if the register—

(a) states that the authority’s area includes land within a block; but

(b) does not include or exclude any particular sub-block within that block;

the reference to the block in the register is a reference to all sub-blocks within the block, other than any sub-block that is completely within the area of another petroleum tenure or a 1923 Act petroleum tenure.

(5) Excluded land may be described in a way the Minister considers appropriate, including, for example, by area or by reference to a stated type of land.

(6) Land ceases to be excluded land for an authority to prospect if—

(a) the block in which the land is located is relinquished or, for any other reason, ceases to be in the area of the authority; or

(b) a petroleum lease is granted over any of the area of the authority and the land is excluded land for the lease.