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Crown Minerals Act 1991

Permits, access to land, and other matters - Enforcement, remedies, and appeals - Criminal liability for knowingly failing to carry out certain obligations

89ZZX: Criminal liability for knowingly failing to carry out certain obligations

You could also call this:

"Breaking the law by not doing what you're supposed to do when closing down oil and gas sites"

Illustration for Crown Minerals Act 1991

If you are in charge of decommissioning petroleum infrastructure or plugging and abandoning wells, you have certain obligations. You can find these obligations in section 89J or 89K for decommissioning, and section 89R or 89S for plugging and abandoning wells. You must meet these obligations by the time required under section 89N for decommissioning or section 89V for plugging and abandoning wells.

If you do something, or fail to do something, that you know will stop you from meeting your obligations, you are committing an offence. This includes doing something that will mean you cannot decommission petroleum infrastructure or plug and abandon wells as required.

If you are a company and you commit an offence, your directors can also be held responsible for the offence. If you are found guilty of an offence, you can face imprisonment or a fine, depending on whether you are an individual or a company. The fine can be up to $1 million for an individual or up to $10 million for a company.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS624607.

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89ZZW: Proceedings for pecuniary penalties, or

"What happens in court when someone breaks a rule and might have to pay a penalty"

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89ZZY: Defence to criminal liability for directors, or

"Directors are not guilty if they tried to make their company follow the rules"

Part 1BPermits, access to land, and other matters
Enforcement, remedies, and appeals: Criminal liability for knowingly failing to carry out certain obligations

89ZZXCriminal liability for knowingly failing to carry out certain obligations

  1. This section applies to a person (A) if A is liable for 1 or more of the following (A’s decommissioning obligations):

  2. carrying out or meeting the costs (or both) of decommissioning petroleum infrastructure under section 89J or 89K by the time A is required to do so under section 89N:
    1. carrying out or meeting the costs (or both) of plugging and abandoning wells under section 89R or 89S by the time A is required to do so under section 89V.

      1. A commits an offence if they do an act, fail to act, or engage in a course of conduct knowing that the act, failure to act, or course of conduct will result in A not being able to meet A’s decommissioning obligations.

      2. If A is a permit holder or licence holder that is a body corporate who, during the period while they are a current permit or licence holder commits an offence under subsection (2), any person who is a director of A when A commits the offence also commits an offence.

      3. If A is a body corporate who commits an offence under subsection (2) in relation to decommissioning obligations under section 89N(2) or 89V(2) (which impose decommissioning obligations when a permit or licence is revoked), any person who is a director of A when A commits the offence also commits an offence).

      4. A person who commits an offence under this section is liable on conviction,—

      5. in the case of an individual, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years, or a fine not exceeding $1 million, or both; and
        1. in any other case, the greater of the following:
          1. a fine not exceeding $10 million:
            1. a fine not exceeding 3 times the cost of decommissioning.

            2. Proceedings under this section may be commenced within 3 years after the matter giving rise to the offence was discovered or ought reasonably to have been discovered.

            Notes
            • Section 89ZZX: inserted, on , by section 18 of the Crown Minerals (Decommissioning and Other Matters) Amendment Act 2021 (2021 No 53).