Are you talking about what happened after the first court case?
The short answer is, NOPTA and the Department of Resources didn't actually know what to do immediately after the Federal Court orders (I asked them myself & this is evidenced by the confused status on the public tracking system for many days/months after the federal case concluded), they probably sought legal advice about how to deal with the re-directing of the application back to the "JA".
If you are talking about why the application went back to NOPTA for assessment after the first federal court case concluded, it is because the application no longer made any sense, for example, Asset Energy was asking to drill by 04/11/2020 (source: 26-Oct-202210:35AffidavitAsset Energy Pty Ltd ACN 120 013 390 https://www.comcourts.gov.au/file/Federal/P/WAD106/2022/actions). It also had evidence of a third party consultant which would have expired (considering all their costs and projections were based on the 2020 drill campaign [also the rig availability might no longer be valid]). Therefore they needed to redo their gantt chart, and redo their evidence for conducting the work program in the proposed work program timeline.
In other words, the time line needed to change, NOPTA and the Joint Authority could not just automatically adjust the timeline without the consent of Asset Energy. Additionally, even if Asset Energy wanted the time line to change, they needed to prove that this timeline makes sense.
As to why there were "requests for information"... well I believe some of these might have been to fix administrative errors in the application (just like in 2020) and some of these were probably foreshadowing of reasons for rejection (just like in 2020) e.g requests for further financial details (which is why I would be very upset if I find out David Breeze was not prepared with 100 pages of why he thinks the company complies with the hurdle rate, capital, and raising ability etc etc).
If you got your hands on the previous documents from the previous court case, it all becomes crystal clear.
BPH Price at posting:
1.2¢ Sentiment: Sell Disclosure: Not Held
