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