Minimum production schedule.

§ 3142.2–1 Minimum production schedule. Upon receipt of the supplement to the plan of operations described in § 3142.1(b) of this title, the authorized officer shall examine the information furnished by the lessee and determine if the estimate of the recoverable tar sand reserves is adequate and reasonable. In making this determination, the authorized officer may request, and the lessee shall furnish, any information that is the basis of the lessee's estimate of the recoverable tar sand reserves. As part of the authorized officer's determination that the estimate of the recoverable tar sand reserves is adequate and reasonable, he/she may consider, but is not limited to, the following: or grade, strip ratio, vertical and horizal continuity, extract process recoverability, and proven or unproven status of extraction technology, terrain, environmental mitigation factors, marketability of products and capital operations costs. The authorized officer shall then establish as soon as possible, but prior to the beginning of the eleventh year, based upon the estimate of the recoverable tar sand reserves, a minimum annual tar sand production schedule for the lease or unit operations which shall start in the eleventh year of the lease. This minimum production level shall escalate in equal annual increments to a maximum of 1 percent of the estimated recoverable tar sand reserves in the twentieth year of the lease and remain at 1 percent each year thereafter.