All enquiries concerning the reporting and submission requirements for offshore petroleum and greenhouse gas data should be directed to data@nopta.gov.au.
Data submissions are to be directed to either the National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator (NOPTA) or the National Offshore Petroleum Data and Core Repository (NOPDCR), (refer to submission addresses page). Complete reports and data submissions are preferred and any variations to submission timelines, contents or format require the advance approval of the Titles Administrator. Please refer to variation to data submission requirements section below for more information.
Where basic and interpretative data are mixed on a single medium, those submitting the data must ensure that basic and interpretative volumes are identified and provided as separate files—and clearly marked on both the medium and accompanying transmittal. NOPTA prefers basic and interpretative volumes to be submitted on separate media to avoid difficulties in the classification of data.
Titleholders are required to provide advance details of defined well activities (including drilling and well workover programs) under Regulation 5.22 of the RMA Regulations. This is usually provided as part of the well operations management plan (WOMP) approved by the National Offshore Petroleum, Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA), the regulator as defined in Regulation 5.02. Under Regulation 5.28, titleholders are also required to provide a copy of the appropriate documents to NOPTA.
Well Operations Management Plans (WOMPs) and other well activity notifications should be forwarded to resources@nopta.gov.au.
‘Daily drilling reports’ (Regulation 7.12 and 9.12) must be submitted to NOPTA at reporting@nopta.gov.au by midday on the day after the day to which the report relates.
‘Initial well completion reports’ (Regulation 7.13 and 9.13) and all ‘initial well completion data’ (Schedule 1 of the RMA Regulations) must be submitted to NOPTA within 6 months of the rig release date unless otherwise authorised.
‘Final well completion reports’ (Regulations 7.14 and 9.14) and all ‘final well completion data’ (Schedule 2 of the RMA Regulations) must be submitted to NOPTA within 12 months of the rig release date for greenhouse gas titles or, for all other petroleum titles, within 18 months of the rig release date, unless otherwise authorised.
Petrophysical, geochemical or other sample analyses are submitted as part of the final well completion dataset. However, this data is classified and released as basic information.
Where these basic data items are available at the time the initial well completion report and associated data is due, please include it with the initial well completion report and data submission. When submitting these basic data items as part of the final well completion report, titleholders should submit the dataset as clearly labelled separate files to assist with processing the public release of this dataset as basic information.
Please note that although all care is undertaken, the Titles Administrator and the NOPDCR cannot take responsibility for the inadvertent release of data where items have been incorrectly labelled or provided in a way contrary to these requirements or those of the RMA Regulations.
Well workovers are defined in Regulation 5.02 as an approved well activity under the RMA Regulations and have similar daily and summary reporting requirements.
Regulation 12.07 of the RMA Regulations outlines the requirement to provide 48 hours notice of the commencement of all geophysical or geological surveys. Information to be provided includes the proposed date and time of survey commencement, the anticipated duration of the survey, survey area coordinates and for seismic surveys, the length of streamers to be towed by the survey vessel. Survey notifications should be forwarded to reporting@nopta.gov.au.
‘Weekly survey reports’ (Regulation 7.15 and 9.15) must be submitted to NOPTA at reporting@nopta.gov.au as soon as practicable after the end of each week of the survey.
A ‘survey acquisition report’ (Regulations 7.16 and 9.16) and ‘survey acquisition data’ (Schedule 3 of the RMA Regulations) must be provided to NOPTA within either 6, 12 or 18 months of the day the survey was completed depending on the title under which the survey is conducted, unless otherwise authorised.
Due to the volume of data, field tapes are submitted directly to the NOPDCR Canberra repository. A copy of the field tape listing and load information should accompany this submission.
A ‘survey processing report’ (Regulation 7.17 and 9.17) and ‘processed survey data’ (Schedule 4 of the RMA Regulations) must be provided to NOPTA within 6, 12, 18, or 24 months after the day that the acquisition of the data is completed, unless otherwise authorised.
A ‘survey interpretation report’ (Regulations 7.18 and 9.18) and ‘interpretative survey data’ (Schedule 5 of the RMA Regulations) must be provided to NOPTA within 12, 18 or 30 months of the day the survey was completed depending on the title under which the survey is conducted.
Seismic data that has been reprocessed as a condition of a title (i.e. the minimum work requirement table, also referred to as a work program) may be released by NOPTA under the RMA Regulations 8.11(3). To release this information, NOPTA expects titleholders to submit a survey processing report, processed survey data, survey interpretation report and interpretative survey data that meets the same requirements as is expected for new surveys.
The survey processing report and processed data should be received by NOPTA by the end of the title year in which the reprocessing was completed; the survey interpretation report and interpretative data should be received within 12 months after that date.
A title year is each 12-month period from the grant or renewal (or anniversary of) of a title. The title year may not align with the permit year which relates to the period in which a work program item must be completed.
Please contact data@nopta.gov.au for further clarification if needed.
The RMA Regulations define non-exclusive data as ‘data that is made available for commercial sale or license’ (Regulation 1.05). In some circumstances, titleholders may license this data to meet their title conditions.
The Titles Administrator does not expect to receive an interpretative data submission from the titleholder that has conducted a survey acquiring non-exclusive data. However, where a titleholder has purchased or licensed survey data to meet a title condition, the Titles Administrator expects to receive a survey interpretation report and data derived from that data from the licensee.
For some 3D surveys acquiring non-exclusive data, a condition to the grant of title may include the requirement to produce a 2D extract. This extract must be submitted in a 5km x 5km grid and will be made publicly available earlier than the 3D deliverables.
A variation to the submission requirements for an offshore petroleum and greenhouse gas activity may be authorised by the Titles Administrator. Variations that may be considered include extended submission timing, non-standard media/format submissions or combined submissions.
A request to vary submission requirements should be directed to data@nopta.gov.au and include:
The submission variation approval number should be quoted on the relevant data submission transmittal(s) and any correspondence (including emails).
For further information, please contact data@nopta.gov.au.
