They don’t own the land, just the right to drill on it provided they jump through the rest of the BLM’s hoops. If they find anything, depending on the lease deal, the US gets the royalty interest of between 1/8 and 1/5 of the production, and then gets to tax the income the oil company makes off the rest. Leases are perishable, so the clock is ticking on that.
Didn’t say they owned it.
I was in the oil business and I have my own land leased so I know what a lease is.
The area is 40,000 acres total. Some is govt land some is private.
Depending on how much of the 40,000 is govt land and how much is private, the $1.27 million for the govt land could be a really good deal.
Depending on what is in the lease, a lease is held by production and or activity and the production or activity can be started on the last day of the lease.