The changes, which will take effect from today, particularly relate to the Division of Resources and Energy and will for the most part govern safety aspects of petroleum exploration and extraction.
The NSW Department of Industry, Resources and Energy said the new laws would provide for a consistent and robust single WHS regulatory framework for onshore petroleum sites, which would target specific industry risks and encourage proactive regulatory oversight.
The amended WHS (Mines and Petrolum Sites) Act 2013 and WHS (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Regulation 2016 will also apply to some aspects of the mining industries, including:
- Allowing the regulator to specify where documents are to be served for the purposes of the Act;
- Requiring operators of a mine or petroleum site to provide the regulator with a report following decommissioning of a well;
- Exempting certain hoists used at small gemstone mines from the requirement to be design registered;
- Requiring shotfiring apparatus used at underground coal mines to be overhauled or repaired only by persons holding specified accreditation;
- Making further provision with respect to notifiable incidents;
- Clarifying the circumstances when notification of certain high potential incidents to the regulator is required, including the detection of methane in an underground coal mine;
- Clarifyng the use of explosives in underground coal mines, including restrictions around storage;
- Clarifying the requirements to perform the statutory function of mechanical tradesperson.
The department said most updates to WHS legislation were already in place for the mining industry but that a range of guidelines would be released to support the switch over for affected resources industries.
Transitional arrangements are in place for the beginning of many of the provisions that apply to the petroleum sector.
New legislation, forms and guidelines will be available from the ‘safety and health’ area of the Department’s website from today.
