11 AAC 84.880. Unit area; contraction and expansion

(a) A unit must encompass the minimum area required to include all or part of one or more geothermal systems, or all or part of one or more potential geothermal systems.

(b) Ten years after sustained unit production begins, the unit area must be contracted to include only those lands then included in an approved participating area and lands that facilitate production including the immediately adjacent lands necessary for secondary or tertiary recovery, pressure maintenance, reinjection, or cycling operations. The commissioner will, in his discretion, after considering provisions of 11 AAC 84.815, delay contraction of the unit area if the circumstances of a particular unit warrant. If any portion of a lease in included in the participating area, the entire lease will remain committed to the unit.

(c) Any expansion or contraction of the unit area must be based on legal subdivisions of land as defined in 11 AAC 88.185.

(d) No land will be excluded from a unit area due to the depletion of geothermal resources.

(e) Not sooner than 10 years from the effective date of the unit agreement, the commissioner will, in his discretion, contract the unit area to include only that land covered by an approved unit plan of exploration or development, or that land underlain by one or more potential geothermal systems and lands that facilitate production as set out in (b) of this section. Before any contraction of the unit area under this subsection, the commissioner will give the unit operator, the working interest owners, and royalty owners of the leases or portions of leases being excluded, reasonable notice and an opportunity to be heard.

History: Eff. 5/8/83, Register 86

Authority: AS 38.05.020

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