⁍ Levi Sap Nei Thang spent more than $1 million bidding on federal drilling leases in 11 states in August and September.

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⁍ The more than 100 leases cover nearly 87,000 acres (35,000 hectares), or 47% of the acreage offered at BLM auctions over five weeks in August and September.

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⁍ Thang’s prolific buying underscores the relative disinterest of traditional U.S. oil and gas players in investing in new assets amid low prices and weakened demand.

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– The US Bureau of Land Management auctioned off more than 100 oil and gas leases in 11 states over a five-week period in August and September, and almost half of them ended up in the hands of one woman. Reuters reports Levi Sap Nei Thang, a Myanmar-born perfume entrepreneur and missionary, spent more than $1 million buying up nearly half of the leases. The parcels in question covered nearly 87,000 acres, or 47% of the acreage offered. Thang tells Reuters she bought the leases because she found them cheap because of the Ebola outbreak. “Nobody is buying now so there is no competition,” she says. “I don’t go by what people are doing.” Thang, who boasts a large social media following and says she is a Christian guided by meditation and prayer, says she bought the leases to help others in her native Myanmar and elsewhere. “I don’t do this for my own benefit,” she says. “I don’t call myself a business person.”