The Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety’s (DMIRS) co-funded Energy Analysis Program (EAP) is a new program of the Exploration Incentive Scheme (EIS) for petroleum and geothermal companies.
The program aims to make funding available for analysis of existing resources (core, sidewall core, cuttings, and oil, condensate, water, and gas samples) in Western Australia and to allow re-analysis of existing data (e.g. reprocessing or desktop studies) to achieve better resolution and understanding of petroleum and geothermal systems.
The program will open for applications twice a year, and offers up to a 50 per cent refund, up to $50,000 per application.
Analysis programs that will be eligible for co-funding include analysis of physical samples, reprocessing (e.g. seismic), and desktop or data studies.
Allocation of grants follows a competitive process, and are offered until the exhaustion of available funding, which is capped at $250,000 per round.
The co-funding amount is refunded in a single payment at the completion of the EAP and upon submission of all the required documents, data, and analysis products.
Data from all programs will become open file three months after the formal end date of a Series.
If successful, applicants are expected to abide by the conditions set out in the Funding Agreement document. At the completion of the program, participants will be required to submit a final report in accordance with the template.
Funding can be offered to those applicants holding one of the following permits granted under the Petroleum and Geothermal Energy Resources Act 1967 (WA) or the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act 1982:
- Petroleum Title
- Geothermal Title
- Exploration Permit Application
- Drilling Reservation
- Special Prospecting Authority
- Special Prospecting Authority with Acreage Option
- Special Prospecting Authority Application
Funding can be offered only for analysis of material and data within the WA jurisdiction. It will not be granted for assessment of data sourced from Commonwealth areas.
Where newly drilled material is analysed as part of this program, the confidentiality of data will adhere to the terms of the Co-funded Energy Analysis Program Funding Agreement.
Co-funding is for direct analysis costs only, which does not include: administration costs, shipping costs, project management costs, transportation of personnel, or company personnel salaries.
Series 4 applications period is now open until 26 August 2022.
Full details of the funding process and applicant eligibility are detailed in the EAP Guidelines for submission of applications 2022.