This will be reflected in part in the following comments about private lands. Private Lands One might readily expect that the simplest way to characterize private land is to observe that it is all non public land. That certainly is a starting point, but it can be somewhat missleading, and certainly is not terribly informative. Let us begin with who owns private land and what those ownership rights are. First, it is correct to assume that private land is all of the land that is not public.
Private land is owned by individuals singly or collectively.
The most common collective ownership is by firms or corporations doing business. Second, however, is an important element of land ownership that relates to attendant energy and minerals rights. Simply stated, these rights are severable, and, as with the land, fully marketable by any and all owners. Thus, in an environment where there is a dynamic market for energy and mineral rights, in combination and separably, the resulting distribution of these rights at any time is extraordinarily complex. Further, rights owners may subsequently resell partial rights to exploration, production, and marketing of energy and minerals products to additional owners.