A good part of my life is spent reviewing and negotiating commercial leases.

To me, this clause says that the Agreement can be extended for 2 further terms of 10 years each, PROVIDED THAT THE PARTIES (TO THE CONTRACT) HAVE FIRST AGREED IN WRITING TO SO EXTEND THE TERM, WITH SUCH AGREEMENT TO COME PRIOR TO THE EXPIRATION OF THE THEN CURRENT TERM. The parties also have to give notice of their agreement to extend the contract to some grand poobah BEFORE the expiration of the thte then current term.

If there was no requirement for the parties to formally agree with each other on renewals of the term, then the original contract would have had a 40 year term.

These sorts of clauses show up all the time in leases - containing varying numbers of issues that have to be agreed upon before an extension can be binding. Most also contain wording that says, if there's no agreement as to the terms of a renewal, then the tenant has to leave "tout de suite" at the end of the then current term.

EZ, I agree with most of what you say on this board, but I think this is the proper interpretation of teh Contract.

Mind you, if we're up to 160,00 t/day - it won't friggin' matter what happens in 20 years time, haha.