Western Australia Tightens Oil, Gas Regulations

Western Australia has tightened regulation of oil and gas sector by imposing strict disclosure laws.

Companies involved in oil and gas sector will have to disclose any chemicals they use when drilling wells as part of new regulations introduced by the state government, media reports said. The process of drilling for unconventional gasses is also known as fracking.

Mines and Petroleum Minister Norman Moore said that even though WA does not have any known commercial coal seam gas resources, potential developments of unconventional gas – such as tight and shale gas – needed a robust framework to operate in, Perth Now reported.

“Potential commercial developments for tight and shale gas in WA are a number of years away which provides the state with an opportunity to better understand the resources and ensure we have robust, world best practice industry regulation in place,” Moore said.

The new regulations, which would be introduced under the Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Resources Act 1967, will mean WA will have the highest level of chemical disclosure in Australia, the newspaper said.