In March 2018, the Barossa Project received initial environmental acceptance from the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environment Management Authority (NOPSEMA) for its Offshore Project Proposal (OPP).    

An OPP is an overarching environmental document that provides a detailed risk and impacts analysis over the life of a project and demonstrates how these will be responsibly managed. The concept of an OPP was newly introduced in 2014 to allow for public scrutiny and comment on offshore petroleum developments early in the project lifecycle. The Barossa OPP is the first to be formally submitted and accepted in Australia. It was subject to an exhaustive assessment process by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) and included an eight-week public comment period. 

Receiving OPP acceptance provides Barossa with an increased certainty of the environmental acceptability of the project and achieves a critical milestone required to enter the FEED stage. Now the OPP has been accepted, the specific environment plans required for each activity can be prepared for submittal.