Changes in the Act of 9 June 2011 – Geological and Mining Law which were introduced with the amendment of 11 July 2014 involve the necessity to change the existing or to adopt new implementing acts.
The following draft regulations are currently the subject of legislative deliberations:
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draft regulation of the Council of Ministers concerning the application for qualification procedure;
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draft regulation of the Council of Ministers concerning the tendering procedure for the award of concessions for prospecting for and exploration of hydrocarbon deposits and exploitation of hydrocarbons from deposits, as well as a concession for exploitation of hydrocarbons from deposits;
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draft regulation of the Minister of the Environment amending the regulation on specific requirements concerning plans of geological operations, including the operations which are subject to obtaining a concession;
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draft regulation of the Minister of the Environment on providing information acquired during the documentation of ongoing geological works;
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draft regulation of the Minister of the Environment on the geological documentation concerning mineral deposits, excluding hydrocarbon deposits;
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draft regulation of the Minister of the Environment on the geological and investment documentation concerning hydrocarbon deposits;
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draft regulation of the Minister of the Environment on the specimen form containing information on fees covered by the Geological and Mining Law provisions.
The amendment entered into force on 1 January 2015, however the legislative works on implementing regulations have not been completed yet. Works are most advanced in case of the regulation concerning the application for qualification procedure. On 2 March 2015, the draft regulation was accepted by the Permanent Committee of the Council of Ministers. On 26 March 2015, the Chairman of the Government Legislation Centre stated that the draft did not require to be considered by the Legal Commission.
The entry into force of that project is of significance not only for the entities which wish to apply for hydrocarbon concessions in a tendering procedure, but most of all it is necessary for enabling the holding of proceedings in accordance with transitional provisions. For example, in order to be able to extend a currently held concession for prospecting for and exploration of hydrocarbon deposits, an entrepreneur should not only indicate that they intend to expand the scope of the planned geological operations, but they also have to undergo a verification procedure with respect to national security. The respective provisions concerning qualification proceedings (with certain exceptions) shall apply to the procedure verifying entrepreneurs in terms of safety.
Similar requirements apply to entities which, by virtue of their pre-emptive right to establish mining usufruct, may submit application for concessions for exploitation of hydrocarbons from deposits in a non-tender procedure. They also concern the entities which want to transform their concession for prospecting and exploration into a joint concession covering the prospecting, exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbons from deposits.
Draft regulations concerning the following issues have not been published yet:
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the scope and form of geological information gathered in geological archives and the manner of recording such information and the organization of geological archives (an act issued pursuant to Article 98 section 5 of the Geological and Mining Law);
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the content of a mining plant operations plan and a plan of wound-up operations (of the part which is being wound-up and marked) of a mining plant (an act issued pursuant to Article 110 of the Geological and Mining Law).
In the above cases, however, pursuant to Article 26 of the amendment of 11 July 2014, the existing regulations, which have been issued pursuant to Article 98 section 2 and Article 110 of the Geological and Mining Law, shall apply until the new implementing acts are issued, for a period not longer than 2 years from the date of entry into force of the amendment (i.e. until 31 December 2016).
The same rule applies to the regulations on geological documentations and specimen forms used for presenting information on fees charged for the extracted deposits.