Unitisation of petroleum project interests

Abstract

Traditionally, the unitisation of oil and gas project interests involved the exchange of legal ownership interests between project proponents to achieve uniformity of their licence interests across the project. Recently, more contemporary and creative forms of unitisation have emerged including economic, beneficial and contractual unitisation approaches that do not necessarily involve the transfer of legal title interests. Unitisation is a way of pooling resources to improve the likelihood of an economically viable project for participants and to overcome practical challenges resulting from uneven interests in the component parts of a broader project. In some cases, unitisation is the catalyst for project sanction. Achieving agreement and alignment on the most equitable unitisation outcome, including the valuation of the relative resource base and ownership stakes, is not easy. It involves navigating a myriad of legal, commercial, operational and financial considerations. A project residing in both federal and state waters can add increasing layers of complexity due to the interaction between overlapping federal and state jurisdictional and taxing rights. This extended abstract discusses key issues arising in various unitisation models and considers the associated fiscal implications from income tax, capital gains tax, petroleum resource rent tax and royalty perspectives. It also examines the government’s announced tax measures for dealing with the swapping of interests or interest realignments resulting in a common development project and the impact and effectiveness of these rules on unitisation arrangements.