Sorry to extract a portion of your sentence construction since that might miss the intent of the sentence. But, the article says that the leases need to be explored and if they turn up commercial quantities they would be developed; otherwise the land is worthless but the oil company owns the lease anyway. Congress doesn't know if oil/gas is present on those leases when they offer them for sale.
Cavuto had some oil company exec or expert on today who said that a good majority of those acres ARE being explored but do not have the promise already shown by ANWR, etc. He also showed a boatload of demmies using the phrase “68 MILLION ACRES!!!” like that explains why it’s okay for them to screw the average consumer by not allowing drilling in the most promising places.