Energy

Contact: James Plumb and Andrew Shute; Carter Newell (Queensland, Australia)

The Queensland Court of Appeal has recently been asked to consider the legal effect of an election notice issued pursuant to the negotiated access and compensation regime under the Queensland petroleum legislation.

Pending any subsequent legislative amendments, if the original decision is upheld by the Court of Appeal, a party that is first in time to issue an election notice could be free to force any method of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) on another party and, potentially, to effectively oust the role of the Land Court to determine compensation terms that cannot be agreed. On the other hand, if the decision is overturned on appeal, there may be a decline in the use of ADR and a corresponding increase in instances of the Department being called upon to assist the parties to reach a negotiated resolution.

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