New Data Shows American Oil Billionaires Thrive Amid Pandemic & Global Energy Crisis
Forbes’ Billionaires List Shows American Oil Billionaires Made Big Bucks And Bucked Trends
Each year, the Forbes World’s Billionaires List reveals who’s up and who’s down in the world of the ultra-rich. Last year’s list showed how billionaires thrived during the pandemic that wreaked havoc on the economy in 2020. This year, Forbes’s key takeaways were that the number of billionaires and their total wealth were down, chalking these changes up to sanctions on Russia and crackdowns on tech in China.
We took a closer look at billionaires on the list who made their money in oil and gas, petrochemicals, and pipelines. Unsurprisingly, American billionaires whose wealth is tied to oil and gas have seen their fortunes grow by $29.5 billion (an average of over $1 billion each) at a time when oil and gas companies are focused on keeping prices high to reward shareholders.
Key Points:
U.S. oil billionaires are continuing to build wealth. In the United States, oil billionaires saw their net worth increasing at an even faster overall rate than the previous year.
- During the pandemic (April 2020-April 2021), American oil billionaires on the Forbes list saw their wealth grow by $856 million on average.
- From 2021 to 2022, American oil billionaires saw their wealth grow by an additional $1 billion on average.
- In total, the 28 American oil billionaires on the list saw their total combined wealth grow by $29.5 billion from $100 billion in 2021 to $129.5 billion in 2022.
- While a few American oil billionaires on the list saw no change in net worth from 2021 to 2022, none experienced a loss.
- While three Russian oil billionaires who made the Forbes list in 2021 were dropped in 2022, one new American oil billionaire, Autry Stephens of Texas, joined the list this year.
Global totals among oil billionaires don’t match trends in the U.S because of Russian sanctions. Globally, the total wealth of oil billionaires declined from 2021 to 2022, but those totals include Russians whose portfolios collapsed in the wake of western sanctions.
- Using stock values as of March 11, 2022, 11 Russian oil billionaires on the Forbes list lost $46 billion in wealth since last year.
- Excluding Russian oil billionaires from the data set shows $22.2 billion in wealth gains among the rest of the world’s oil billionaires.
Supplemental Data: List Of Oil Billionaires
Source: “World’s Billionaires List: The Richest in 2022,” Forbes April 2022
| 2022 Wealth (Millions) | 2021 Wealth (Millions) | Change In Wealth (Millions) | Name | Country | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $18,200 | $18,200 | $0 | Fan Hongwei & family | China | petrochemicals |
| $17,200 | $9,400 | $7,800 | Harold Hamm & family | United States | oil & gas |
| $14,000 | $24,900 | -$10,900 | Leonid Mikhelson | Russia | gas, chemicals |
| $11,800 | $15,500 | -$3,700 | Mikhail Fridman | United Kingdom | oil, banking, telecom |
| $11,300 | $22,000 | -$10,700 | Gennady Timchenko | Russia | oil, gas |
| $10,500 | $24,900 | -$14,400 | Vagit Alekperov | Russia | oil |
| $9,900 | $5,800 | $4,100 | George Kaiser | United States | oil & gas, banking |
| $7,800 | $10,100 | -$2,300 | German Khan | United Kingdom | oil, banking, telecom |
| $7,500 | $7,000 | $500 | Richard Kinder | United States | pipelines |
| $7,500 | $2,000 | $5,500 | Jeffery Hildebrand | United States | oil |
| $7,000 | $5,400 | $1,600 | Carrie Perrodo & family | United Kingdom | oil |
| $6,600 | $6,000 | $600 | Dannine Avara | United States | pipelines |
| $6,600 | $6,000 | $600 | Scott Duncan | United States | pipelines |
| $6,600 | $6,000 | $600 | Milane Frantz | United States | pipelines |
| $6,600 | $6,000 | $600 | Randa Duncan Williams | United States | pipelines |
| $6,500 | $4,200 | $2,300 | Ray Lee Hunt | United States | oil, real estate |
| $6,000 | $7,800 | -$1,800 | Alexei Kuzmichev | Russia | oil, banking, telecom |
| $5,800 | $5,400 | $400 | Terrence Pegula | United States | natural gas |
| $5,100 | $5,100 | $0 | Robert Bass | United States | oil, investments |
| $5,000 | $11,100 | -$6,100 | Leonid Fedun | Russia | oil |
| $4,500 | $4,000 | $500 | Trevor Rees-Jones | United States | oil & gas |
| $4,300 | $2,000 | $2,300 | W. Herbert Hunt | United States | oil |
| $4,000 | $3,400 | $600 | Kelcy Warren | United States | pipelines |
| $4,000 | $1,900 | $2,100 | Arthur Irving | Canada | oil |
| $3,700 | $2,800 | $900 | John Catsimatidis | United States | oil, real estate |
| $3,500 | $3,400 | $100 | Lynn Schusterman | United States | oil & gas, investments |
| $3,400 | $2,900 | $500 | Sid Bass | United States | oil, investments |
| $3,000 | $6,400 | -$3,400 | Wang Yusuo & family | China | natural gas distribution |
| $2,900 | $1,800 | $1,100 | N. Murray Edwards | United Kingdom | oil & gas |
| $2,800 | $2,400 | $400 | Gregorio Perez Companc & family | Argentina | oil & gas |
| $2,700 | $2,100 | $600 | George Bishop | United States | oil & gas |
| $2,400 | $2,200 | $200 | Edward Bass | United States | oil, investments |
| $2,300 | $2,100 | $200 | Ray Davis | United States | pipelines |
| $2,200 | $2,000 | $200 | Arvind Tiku | Singapore | oil & gas, investments |
| $2,100 | $2,100 | $0 | Gordon Getty | United States | Getty Oil |
| $2,100 | $1,900 | $200 | Lee Bass | United States | oil, investments |
| $2,000 | $1,700 | $300 | Daniel Chiu | Hong Kong | oil & gas |
| $1,900 | $3,300 | -$1,400 | Alejandro Bulgheroni | Uruguay | oil & gas |
| $1,800 | $1,800 | $0 | Torbjorn Tornqvist | Switzerland | oil trading |
| $1,800 | $1,700 | $100 | Paul Foster | United States | oil refining |
| $1,600 | $1,900 | -$300 | Evgeny (Eugene) Shvidler | United Kingdom | oil & gas, investments |
| $1,600 | $1,600 | $0 | William Koch | United States | oil, investments |
| $1,500 | $2,200 | -$700 | Nikolai Buinov | Russia | oil, gas |
| $1,500 | $1,600 | -$100 | Massimo Moratti | Italy | oil refinery |
| $1,500 | $1,400 | $100 | Timothy Headington | United States | oil & gas, investments |
| $1,400 | $1,400 | $0 | Vardis Vardinoyannis & family | Greece | oil and gas |
| $1,300 | $2,800 | -$1,500 | Liu Ming Hui | Hong Kong | natural gas distribution |
| $1,300 | $2,500 | -$1,200 | Mikhail Gutseriev & brother | Russia | oil, real estate |
| $1,300 | $1,300 | $0 | Farris Wilks | United States | natural gas |
| $1,300 | $1,200 | $100 | Rustem Sulteev | Russia | refinery, chemicals |
| $1,300 | $1,100 | $200 | Dan Wilks | United States | natural gas |
| $1,200 | $1,400 | -$200 | Airat Shaimiev | Russia | refinery, chemicals |
| $1,200 | $1,300 | -$100 | Mika Anttonen | Finland | oil & gas |
| $1,200 | $1,300 | -$100 | Radik Shaimiev | Russia | refinery, chemicals |
| $1,100 | $1,100 | $0 | Lim Hariyanto Wijaya Sarwono | Indonesia | palm oil, nickel mining |
| $1,100 | $1,100 | $0 | Michael S. Smith | United States | liquefied natural gas |
| $1,100 | $1,100 | $0 | Igor Yusufov | Russia | oil & gas |
| $1,000 | $1,200 | -$200 | Zhou Yifeng & family | China | liquefied petroleum gas |