Western Australian authorities appear lukewarm on suggestions that the federal government needs to nationalise the regulation of the oil and gas industry across Australian states and territories in light of the deemed failure of a regional regulatory body in preventing the Montara oil spill incident.

A report by the Commission of Inquiry has established that the Northern Territory Department of Resources (NTDR) inadequately played its role in policing the operational practices of Thai energy firm PTTEP Australia.

Such oversight, according to the Commission's report, largely contributed to the oil spill that ensued following a fire on the oil rig that the company maintains off the coast of Western Australia.

In updating the parliament on the report incident, Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson bemoaned of the shortcomings by the NTDR that led to the disaster he characterised as wholly avoidable.

As a direct result of the incident, Mr Ferguson strongly suggested the creation of a single federal regulatory body that would guard the energy sector's activities, which could be more effective in preventing future occurrence of similar disasters.

However, the WA government seemed far from being convinced as Mines Minister Norman Moore flatly declared that the state government is unwelcome to the idea that federal authorities usurp regional roles of managing WA's offshore energy resources activities.

Mr Moore reminded that "the Commonwealth and the Northern Territory Government are both part of the joint authority managing that part of the offshore petroleum industry," and a federal role in managing Western Australia's biggest industry would not lead to any obvious advantage for the state.

He expressed confidence that the WA state government would not botch its regulatory obligations in the same manner that the NT authorities did, further arguing that "the Commonwealth doesn't have the degree of on-the-ground expertise that we have here and so we've taken the view that we can do the job but we're not uncomfortable about them having an auditing role."