RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:Africa Oil I'm not sure how that would pan out as yes, under the act the land must be restored back to its original condition which is not a problem and budgeted when a company actually extracts the oil from the land, makes decades of revenue as a result, and once the oil is depleted, return the land back to original condition. No problem for a company that made lots of revenue.
In this case AOS never got to the stage to benefit from the land as the lease cancelling happenned prior to any production. They may have a case that doesn't fall under any act, and may argue that their compensation package include the cost of returning the land back to a natural state.
No one should be penalized for having their lease cancelled abruptly.