Aventus prepares Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) documents using in-depth industry knowledge, field and auditing experience.
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), put simply, is the process of identifying the environmental hazards associated with an activity, the impacts and risks of those hazards, identifying controls to prevent, mitigate or manage those impacts and risks, and documenting this information in a format suitable for review by stakeholders and submission to government regulators for assessment. Though EIA documentation differs slightly across jurisdictions, the process remains largely the same.
Aventus has prepared EIA documents under various Commonwealth and State regulations, including over 25 Environment Plans for offshore oil and gas activities for submission to NOPSEMA, along with onshore EIA documents for DMIRS in Western Australia and ERR in Victoria. Majors, mid-caps and junior energy titleholders trust Aventus to deliver on its EIA expertise, with 70% repeat business.
Requirements for an Environmental Impact Assessment
The provision of expert advice;
Approvals, schedule and resource planning (project management);
Regulator liaison;
Stakeholder consultation;
Scoping, managing and reviewing specialist field studies and modelling;
Desktop research;
Facilitating hazard identification (hazID) and environmental identification (envID) workshops;
Developing project controls (as an iterative process between proponent and stakeholders); and
Report writing.
Commonwealth Environmental Legislation
Under the Commonwealth Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), administered by the Department of the Environment and Energy (DoEE), the following approvals documentation is required, dependent on the complexity of the project and its impacts (in increasing level of detail):
EPBC Act Referral.
Preliminary documentation.
Public Environment Report (PER).
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
Commonwealth Industry Legislation
Under the Offshore Petroleum and Greenhouse Gas Storage (Environment) Regulations 2009 (the ‘OPGGS(E)’), administered by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA), the following types of EIA for offshore activities are required in Commonwealth waters:
Environment Plan (EP).
Offshore Project Proposal (OPP) (for large-scale developments that may have an impact on matters protected under Part 3 of the EPBC Act).
Offshore regulations in the states and Northern Territory (NT) mirroring that of the OPGGS(E) also requires an EP for activities in state waters to be approved by the state-based Administering Authority.
Aventus has submitted over 25 EPs to NOPSEMA, numerous others for Commonwealth waters prior to NOPSEMA’s formation, and many other State-based EPs. We know ‘ALARP’ from ‘Acceptability’ and ‘Environmental Performance Outcome’ from ‘Environmental Performance Standard.’
For the onshore State and NT jurisdictions, an EIA in its various guises is required.