Contractual Issues For Overlapping Mining And Petroleum Activities

The big open spaces of Australia aren't as big as they used to be. Increasingly miners (both coal and hard rock) and petroleum producers Australia-wide are seeking to access the same territory to explore for and extract their favoured resource, particularly in areas where there are commercial quantities of coal seam gas.

In doing so, petroleum producers and miners have to deal with a new range of technical, commercial and legal issues that differ markedly from well-established legal processes.

Commercial certainty amidst uncertainty in legislative regimes is increasingly being sought and found through contractual arrangements.