A Look at the Richest Oil Barons in the U.S.

Forbes has recently released its latest rich list, so now would be a good time to look at the world’s billionaires who have benefitted most from the US oil industry.

The Koch Brothers, Charles and David, are the joint 6th richest people in the world with fortunes of $34 billion each. Their fortune has been created from massive refineries, pipeline networks, and chemical plants, all of which have been boosted by the US shale boom.

Harold Hamm, the CEO and founder of Continental Resources, is the 90th richest person in the world with his 73% stake in Continental worth $11.3 billion. He was there at the beginning of the Bakken shale formation, and helped to develop it into the monster that it is today. In 2006 the Bakken was producing 100,000 barrels per day, and now it produces 550,000 barrels per day; Hamm and his analysts believe that it has the potential to reach 1 million bpd.

Then there are Phil Anschutz and George Kaiser, both with fortunes of $10 billion, and tied on the Forbes list at 109th.

Anschutz has built empires in oil, railroads, and telecoms, with his biggest to date being in the world of entertainment with his company Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG).

Kaiser’s family fled Nazi Germany, before settling in the US and founding the Kaiser-Francis Oil Company; George took control in the late 60s.

Next is Richard Kinder, the co-founder of Kinder Morgan the pipeline giant. His $9.8 billion fortune puts him in 112th place on the list. Kinder Morgan controls 75,000 miles of pipeline and 180 storage terminals which can transport 2.5 million barrels of oil and 55 billion cubic feet of gas every day.

Ray Lee Hunt inherited a fortune from his father H.L. Hunt, and has developed it into a $5.6 billion sum with investments in Peruvian and Yemeni LNG Project, a refinery in Alabama, and a big oil find in Iraq’s Kurdistan last year through his company Hunt Oil. His wealth makes him the 214th richest in the world.

Jeffrey Hildebrand’s $5.5 billion fortune ranks him at 219th on Forbes list.he sold his stake in the Eagle Ford shale play to Marathon Oil for $1.4 billion in 2011, and then reinvested in fields in the Cook Inlet, Alaska. He also has large interests in the Utica play in Ohio, and last year sold most of his Gulf of Mexico assets for $550 million.

For a more comprehensive list go to: http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopherhelman/2013/03/04/americas-oil-and-gas-billionaires/

By. Charles Kennedy of Oilprice.com