22 thinkers, books, and ideas connected to this field.
Texas wildcatter and investor who partnered with Sid Richardson in the East Texas and Permian Basin oil boom — building a diversified empire of companies — and who represented the Texas oil money political establishment of the mid-20th century.
Columbus Marion 'Dad' Joiner — the aging wildcatter who in 1930 discovered the East Texas oil field, the largest oil discovery in US history at the time — and who was swindled out of most of his fortune by H.L. Hunt.
American energy historian and analyst — author of The Prize (Pulitzer Prize, 1991) and The Quest — vice chairman of IHS Markit — the most authoritative writer on the history of oil and global energy.
Texas oil man and investor — son of wildcatter Monty Moncrief — who continued the family oil operations while becoming a significant investor and supporter of the Founders podcast ecosystem.
Swedish-Russian industrialist who inherited the Nobel oil empire from his father Ludvig and maintained it as the largest oil operation in Russia — before the Bolshevik Revolution nationalized all private industry — demonstrating the challenges of preserving a great founder's creation across generations.
American multinational oil and gas company — descended from Standard Oil of New Jersey after the 1911 antitrust breakup — which became the world's largest publicly traded company by revenue in various years and the primary inheritor of Rockefeller's Standard Oil legacy.
Darren Woods's Irving, Texas oil supermajor — formed from the 1999 merger of Exxon and Mobil (both Standard Oil descendants) — one of the world's largest companies by revenue and one of the most profitable energy companies in history.
American oil entrepreneur who made his fortune in the Oklahoma oil boom in the early 1900s — building a modest oil fortune that J. Paul Getty used as his starting capital to build one of the world's largest oil fortunes.
Texas wildcatter who acquired Dad Joiner's East Texas oil field in a sharp dealing, used it to build the largest personal fortune in the United States — and whose ultra-conservative political media empire made him as polarizing as he was wealthy.
J. Paul Getty's 1965 book distilling his philosophy on wealth creation — arguing that the rich get rich by being better operators (not smarter or luckier), by buying assets when they are cheap, and by being willing to work harder than anyone else.
American oil magnate who was the world's richest private person in 1957 — known for legendary frugality (installing a payphone for guests) and obsessive art collecting — and who wrote How to Be Rich, which argued that wealth comes from being a better operator than competitors.
American oil magnate — founder of Standard Oil, the world's first and greatest monopoly — who at his peak controlled 90% of US oil refining — the wealthiest private individual in modern history (inflation-adjusted) — who then gave away over $500 million, founding the University of Chicago and Rockefeller University.
American oil magnate who founded Standard Oil in 1870 — controlling 90% of US oil refining by 1880 — through relentless price cutting, secret railroad rebates, and the absorption of competitors, before being broken up by the Supreme Court in 1911.
Taylor Sheridan's 2024 Paramount+ drama about the oil business in West Texas — following a troubleshooter managing the complex problems of a Texas oil company.
Swedish-Russian industrialist who built the Nobel Brothers Petroleum Company in Baku into the largest oil operation in the world outside the United States — inventing the oil tanker ship, the pipeline, and the rail tank car in the process — and whose business acumen was arguably greater than brother Alfred's scientific fame.
Texas oil man from the Moncrief family — one of the great Fort Worth oil dynasties — whose career exemplified the wildcatter spirit of relentless drilling and willingness to risk everything on the next well.
Swedish industrialist and brother of Alfred and Ludvig Nobel — who traveled to Baku to purchase walnut wood for rifle stocks and inadvertently discovered the oil fields that would become the foundation of the Nobel oil empire.
Anglo-Dutch multinational oil company formed by the 1907 merger of Royal Dutch Petroleum and Shell Transport — which became Standard Oil's primary global competitor — and is now one of the world's largest companies by revenue.
Texas wildcatter who struck enormous oil wealth in the Permian Basin — partnering with his friend Clint Murchison — and whose personal fortune (one of the largest in America at his death) was accumulated through extreme geological risk-taking and a lifelong bachelor's reinvestment of all profits.
John D. Rockefeller's oil refining company — which grew to control 90% of US oil refining by 1882 — through horizontal integration, ruthless cost reduction, and the systematic acquisition or destruction of competitors, making it the greatest monopoly in American history before its 1911 dissolution.
Bryan Burrough's 2009 group biography of the four Texas families who struck it rich in the Texas oil boom — Clint Murchison, Sid Richardson, H.L. Hunt, and Roy Cullen — and how they parlayed oil money into political power, cultural influence, and business empires.
A companion volume to Bryan Burrough's Texas oil history — focusing specifically on the independent wildcatters who drilled speculative oil wells outside the major companies' established fields — and the personality type that made them successful.