This Act regulates the prospecting for geothermal energy sources and production of energy derived or derivable from within the ground or thereunder by natural heat, and related matters such as surface rights and limitation of disturbance caused by prospecting or production. All rights exercisable, in relation to geothermal energy, by Vanuatu with respect to the continental shelf or the exclusive economic zone are hereby vested in the Republic of Vanuatu. The Act shall apply in relation to the sea-bed and subsoil of the continental shelf and beneath the waters of the exclusive economic zone, as it applies in relation to land. The Minister may grant, on such conditions as he or she determines, a prospecting licence in accordance with section.