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If the wells/discovery were made on private property, the Feds have no jurisdiction. The oil beneath the privately owned land is owned by the private owners of the mineral rights and their ‘Lessee’s”, the Oil companies, drilling the well under lease agreements signed between the mineral rights owners and the oil companies. This is well established in property and oil & gas law.

If the wells/discovery was on Federal lands, typically administered by the Bureau of Land Managment or the Bureau of Indian Affairs, then anything is possible. Those wells would have likewise been drilled by authority granted under lease agreements signed between the BLM and the Oil Companies, but it is conceivable that the Gov’t could simply unilaterally abrogate those agreements and leave the aggreived parties, the oil companies to seek redress in the Gov’t’s Courts.

Of course, in the perfect “Statist’s” world, the “citizen” owns nothing and all resources and land are owned by the State as was the case in the USSR. In Canada, all minerals and, I think water, are owned by the Crown.

There’s little doubt in my mind that the Obamanistas have discussed amongst themselves the possibility of nationalizing the Oil Companies, much as Mexico did in the 1920’s. I’m not quite sure what’s stopped them; they may be waiting for a national emergency to do so.