GREENHOUSE GAS ISSUES—ONE FOR THE AUSTRALIAN TAXATION OFFICE?

In the 21st century we are constantly bombarded with issues on the need to do more to protect the environment and deal with greenhouse gas issues. The petroleum industry world-wide has come under fire for the emissions produced as a by-product of the petroleum refining industry and all primary producers and refiners must develop strategies to reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions. While it is probably fair to say Australia’s appetite for production and consumption of natural gas or LNG is much more environmentally friendly than the days of fossil fuel sources such as coal, there is still a long way to go to minimise emissions in the industry.Global oil and gas companies operating in Australia are leading the way to develop ways to reduce greenhouse emissions. Two examples are Gorgon joint venture plans for carbon dioxide sequestration for its gas development project and perhaps BHP Billiton’s comments that it sees potential for similar sequestration into coal seams onshore Australia in Queensland, South Australia or New South Wales.The costs of projects to re-use or re-inject or sequestrate greenhouse gases are likely to be significant. But are these operating costs of the taxpaying entities in question and would they qualify for tax relief for income tax or petroleum resource rent tax purposes? This paper looks at some of the projects now underway in Australia to reduce greenhouse emissions in the petroleum sector and assesses whether the type of costs likely to be incurred in such projects might qualify for tax relief under existing legislation.