Ferguson said the commissioner David Borthwick had recommended that he review PTTEP's licence to operate the Montara oilfield.
"He has further recommended that, as the mechanism for instigating this review, I issue a show cause notice to PTTEP Australasia pursuant to the cancellation of title sections of the Offshore Petroleum and Offshore Storage Act of 2006," the minister added.
However, Ferguson said his department would first review PTTEP's action plan, which was developed to address the technical and governance issues identified by the commissioner, and report back by the end of the year on whether the plan would ensure PTTEP and its Australian subsidiaries' operation and procedural measures met industry best practice standards.
He added this would form a key part of his consideration on whether to issue a show cause notice that might lead to the cancellation of all of PTTEP's petroleum licences.
PTTEP operates seven exploration permits, five production licences and seven retention leases, and also holds interests in five exploration permits.
The inquiry had found that PTTEP's operation of the Montara oil field "did not come within a bulls roar of sensible oilfield practices", leading to poor safety practices that resulted in the failure of a concrete barrier on the H1 well at the Montara wellhead platform.
Some of its findings into the factors contributing to the Australia's worst oil spill include what it described as an "inadequate" well operations management plan set out by PTTEP; limited experience of senior PTTEP personnel in batch drilling and batch tieback operations; poor decision-making and judgements; defective records and communications; and a failure by PTTEP to communicate and work with rig personnel from Atlas.
The inquiry also rejected the Northern Territory's claim that it had "appropriately administered the licence area", saying the NT Department of Resources did not take adequate steps to ensure that PTTEP actually complied with the requirement of good oilfield practice.
It added that it was struck by the substantial divergence within Australia in regulatory practices, noting the Victorian regulator was more searching and robust than the NT DoR, and suggested Victorians would have at the very least asked probing questions to better understand PTTEP's plans and would have required the company to manage risks accordingly.
As a result of this observation, the inquiry also recommended that responsibility for well integrity be moved to the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority, and further recommended that NOPSA's roles be combined with a proposed National Offshore Petroleum Regulator.
Ferguson, who has been a proponent for a single regulator, said the government was acting on this recommendation and had decided to extend the functions of NOPSA to include regulation of structural integrity, environment plans and day-to-day operations associated with petroleum activities in Commonwealth waters.
"The expanded authority - to be named the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority - will regulate safety, integrity and environment plans for minerals extraction and greenhouse gas storage activities," he said.
He added the government would maintain the joint authority concept in relation to titles matters and would establish a National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator that would deal with title administration and resource management issues.
"Separating titles and resource management from the regulation of safety and the environment will avoid conflict of regulatory objectives," the minister said.
Ferguson added that while Australia was lucky that no lives were lost from the Montara incident, the risk of further incidents had to be minimised.
"We can't just turn our backs on this industry - it is too important to Australia's economic and energy security. What we can do - working together - is make Australia's offshore safety regime the best and safest in the world," he said.
"The report recognises that while there is room for some improvements, our regulatory regime is good - it is effective.
"We will now commence a period of consultation with industry, community and other key stakeholders to inform the government's final response."
Meanwhile, the Thai company said it was implementing its nine-point action plan to address the issues highlighted in the report.
"The action plan will ensure the full accountability of key personnel to give greater oversight for reporting and checking of all critical offshore operations. This will strengthen the integrity and safety of drilling operations," PTTEP spokesman Chris Kalnin said.
"Actions to improve the company's operational and management systems commenced before and have continued during and since both the commission of inquiry and investigations being undertaken by regulators.
"More reforms will be initiated, if needed, after the company fully assesses the commission of inquiry's extensive report and recommendations and the Australian government's draft response."
