Fact box 5.7 - Status reports

Pursuant to section 27 of the Resource Management Regulations, licensees must submit a status (or relinquishment) report to the NPD within three months after a production licence is surrendered, lapses or expires.

This must provide details of any acquired data and study results as well as an overview of prospects and leads in the licence. It must also contain an overview of all geotechnical materials and where they are stored, along with information about the storage format(s).

A guideline which describes the content of the report can be found on the NPD website. Containing results and assessments which represent interpretations, these reports have not been made public so far. Pursuant to section 85, paragraph 4, sentence 4 of the Resource Management Regulations, the duty of confidentiality for interpreted data runs for 20 years.