Reducing the complexity of environmental approvals: learnings from an industry-wide collaborative effort

Abstract

This extended abstract uses the reference case project, initiated by National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority, now led by National Energy Resources Australia, to delve into the underlying issues in the environmental approvals process and propose the root causes that have influenced this flagship collaborative effort. Collaboration for competitors is inherently difficult. The basis for meaningful collaboration is to find intractable problems that are better solved by a collection of participants with a common purpose. The environmental approvals process has evolved into an intractable problem that is adversely affecting the oil and gas industry’s ability to explore by becoming a barrier to investment and a source of uncertainty in project execution. Successive Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association conferences, and oil and gas industry leaders, have frequently promoted the collaboration imperative to the industry. Indeed, there is broad agreement, and many international examples on matters of health, safety and environmental management, that there is no value in competition. Why then is meaningful collaboration so difficult to deliver in an environmental management setting in Australia? This paper explores the successes and failures of the reference case project to illuminate the realities of collaboration in the Australian offshore petroleum industry. The paper shares insights from project leads, participants, decision makers and stakeholders and covers how collaboration can unlock barriers to investment and deliver greater certainty to the oil and gas industry and the Australian community.