ASIC has signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA), regarding mutual assistance in the supervision and oversight of offshore oil and gas companies in Australia.

Through the MoU, ASIC and NOPSEMA express their willingness to cooperate with each other in the interest of fulfilling their respective regulatory mandates. This includes ensuring that companies in this sector comply with their obligations to remediate their sites, including appropriately accounting for these obligations in their financial reports and other regulatory documents that are under ASIC’s remit.

Background

Companies owning offshore petroleum sites have strict legal obligations to appropriately remove infrastructure and seal off a site at the end of a project, at substantial cost.

NOPSEMA is responsible for ensuring that these companies comply with their obligations to remediate a site, and ASIC is responsible for ensuring that a provision for the cost of the obligations is appropriately recorded in the financial report of the company.

By working together under the terms of the MoU, ASIC and NOPSEMA will be able to share information to assist each other in achieving their respective objectives.