Kia ora and welcome to this issue of the Regulator’s Update – a newsletter for permit holders and other people interested in New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals.

In this issue:

• Crown Minerals Amendment Bill introduced
• Critical Minerals List consultation
• Give your feedback to help with minerals permit application processing times
• Annual summary reports – make it easy in 2023
• How we regulate – information updated
• Decommissioning of petroleum infrastructure and wells – new webpage
• New Exploration Database launching February 2023
• Our hours over the holiday season

Crown Minerals Amendment Bill introduced

The Crown Minerals Amendment Bill has been introduced to enable the Government to better align minerals permitting decisions with its broader objectives.

Submissions on the Bill are open now and close on 23 January.

Crown Minerals Amendment Bill introduced

Critical minerals list consultation

The Government is also separately developing a critical minerals list. The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment is expecting to consult on the purpose, criteria, and potential uses of a list in the new year. 

More information is available in the link above (Crown Minerals Act Amendment Bill introduced).

Survey: Minerals permit application processing times

We’ve started a project to help us see what additional things we can do to reduce minerals application processing times.

We’d appreciate your feedback in this survey. It’ll take 3-5 minutes to fill in.

Minerals permits survey

For more information on the background on this project, see our news item at the link below.

Give your feedback to help with processing of minerals applications

Annual summary reports – make it easy in 2023

Annual summary reports are due 31 March 2023.

Did you know you can submit your 2022 annual summary report (ASR) from 1 January onwards? Read our top tips to make submitting your ASR easy in 2023.

Top tips for submitting your annual summary report

How we regulate – information updated

We have updated our compliance approach to include information about the new enforcement tools we have to respond to non-compliance with the Crown Minerals Act.

New enforcement tools and how they’ll be used

Decommissioning of petroleum infrastructure and wells – new webpage

We have a new webpage that summarises the requirements for the decommissioning of petroleum infrastructure and wells.

This page will be updated when the Crown Minerals (Petroleum) Amendment Regulations are in force (expected early 2023). They will set out detailed technical and financial information requirements related to decommissioning.

Decommissioning of petroleum infrastructure and wells

New Exploration Database launching February 2023

Our new geoscience information platform, the Geodata Catalogue (Catalogue), is going live in early February 2023. The Catalogue will replace the Exploration Database, which is being retired.

The Catalogue is a much more modern system, designed to improve discovery and access to our geoscience information.

The key change for users in the new system is that if you want to download reports or data you will need to register with a RealMe account. Your Exploration Database login details will not work in the new system. You will still be able to browse the Catalogue without logging in.

Register for a RealMe account

With the introduction of this Cloud-based platform we will also be introducing an online submission channel for permit holders. We will share instructions closer to the launch date.

Hours over the holiday season

We will be closed from 3pm Friday 23 December until Wednesday 4 January.

The online permitting system, permit webmaps and the exploration database will still be available to use over this time.

Any emails sent to us during this time will be processed from Thursday 5 January 2023.

Our phone line will reopen at 8.30am on Wednesday 4 January.

We wish you a Merry Kirihimete and happy holiday season.