30 U.S.C. § 1005 — Lease term and work commitment requirements

(a) (1) A geothermal lease has a 10-year primary term. (2) The Secretary must extend it 5 years if, for each year after year 10, the lessee either satisfied the work commitment under subsection (b) or made the subsection (c) annual payment. (3) After that first extension, the Secretary must grant another 5 years if the lessee satisfied the minimum work requirements for every year of the first extension. (b) (1) For every year after year 10, the lessee must meet the Secretary’s minimum work requirements. (2) Regulations must set requirements that establish geothermal potential and, once potential is established, confirm producible geothermal resources. (c) Instead of the subsection (b)(2) work, regulations must set minimum annual payments for a limited number of years that will not hinder diligent development; the number may not exceed the extension period in subsection (a). (d) Regulations must set transition rules for leases issued before August 8, 2005, including terms allowing a lease near expiration on that date to be extended up to 2 years to achieve production or include it in a producing unit. (e) (1) A lessee of geothermal land over a mining claim with an approved operating plan is exempt from annual work requirements if geothermal development would interfere with mining. (2) The exemption ends when mining ends. (f) Minimum work requirements stop applying after the geothermal resource is used in commercial quantities. (g) A lease on land where actual drilling began before the primary term ended and was being diligently pursued must be extended 5 years and then as long as steam is produced or used commercially, but no more than 35 years. If commercial production or use continues at the end and the land is not needed for another purpose, the lessee has a preferential right to renew for a second term on terms the Secretary sets. (h) Unless this section provides otherwise, “produced or utilized in commercial quantities” means completing a well producing geothermal steam commercially. It also includes completing a well able to do so if the Secretary finds diligent efforts are being made to use the steam. This section does not define the term beyond these rules. (i) Minerals locatable under United States mining laws, in leased land, that are not associated with the land’s geothermal resources as defined in section 1001(c), remain locatable under those laws according to the Multiple Mineral Development Act.