Petroleum regulation publishes an investigation information release about their investigation into a reportable incident
On 11 January 2025, Imperial Oil and Gas Pty Ltd (Imperial) notified the Department of a reportable incident at its Carpentaria 5 well pad.
Details of this incident as reported by Imperial can be found at reportable incidents.
The Petroleum Regulation team has now finished its investigation into this incident. The investigation established that environmental harm occurred on a localised and temporary scale. The department issued two penalty infringement notices (PINs) for contraventions of two environmental performance standards in the environmental management plan.
The key learnings included
Daily inspections need to be done thoroughly and accurately
People undertaking daily inspections need to understand what controls they are checking and why they are important to prevent incidents.
Fluids being discharged should be tested on an ongoing basis to confirm quality of discharge
Regular testing of discharge fluids allows the organisation to identify and address potential problems early and prevent potentially larger-scale environmental impact.
Environmental controls and legal obligations should be understood by all relevant personnel, including third parties performing work on site
This includes understanding the purpose of regulatory requirements, reporting timeframes, environmental controls and the consequences of failure.
As part of being a transparent regulator, an investigation information release has been published that outlines further details and findings of the investigation. The department has issued this information release to inform the community and share learnings to support continuous improvement across the industry and prevent future incidents of a similar nature.
To learn more about Environmental Regulation in the Northern Territory, go to the NT EPA website.
Read more information about onshore gas regulation in the Northern Territory.
