10 Famous Faces in Oil and Gas
The oil and gas industry filled with fascinating people. There are hundreds of well-known leaders and public figures in O&G.
But a select few people in O&G are so knowledgeable about their niche in the industry, so outrageous with their wealth, so outspoken about their predictions, or so bold with their risks that they turn heads everywhere they go (even outside the industry).
The following 10 famous faces are some of the most recognizable public figures in the business today.
T. Boone Pickens
Few folks in O&G (or any other line of work for that matter) have not heard of T. Boone. This is one oilman who has embraced the mass media and is using it to improve the industry’s public image, particularly when it comes to natural gas. From TV ads to books, to personal appearances, T. Boone Pickens launched a campaign, the Pickens Plan, in July 2008 to spread his ideas to reduce the United States’ dependence on OPEC oil and replace it with alternative energy like nuclear power, natural gas, wind and solar.
Daniel Yergin
Fortune Magazine calls energy scholar Daniel Yergin “one of the planet’s foremost thinkers about energy and its implications.” Yergin’s book, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power earned him a Pulitzer Prize. He followed it with The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World.
Yergin is the chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA), which he co-founded in 1982. IHS acquired CERA in 2004.
Aubrey McClendon
America’s most reckless billionaire, according to Forbes, Aubrey McClendon is one of the most recognizable faces of the industry, particularly the natural gas industry, as he is an outspoken advocate for the clean burning fuel.
McClendon co-founded Chesapeake Energy Corporation and served as its CEO until April 2013. Chesapeake is one of the top producers of natural gas and oil and natural gas liquids. The company is also credited with the development of unconventional natural gas and oil plays.
Today McClendon is the owner of American Energy Partners and making headlines as he acquires significant acreage in the Utica, Woodford, Marcellus and Permian Basins, proving that his days of spending money and taking risks are not over.
FadelGheit
Legendary oil pundit, FadelGheit, is managing director and a senior analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Gheit is one of the most quoted analysts on energy issues. His expertise in oil price speculation as well as project management and planning has the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, among others, listening. Chances are if you’ve watched CNBC in the last 10 years, you’ve seen Fadel make bold calls on the direction of oil prices. When Fadel speaks, people listen and markets move.
Russell Gold
No doubt you’ve read Russell Gold’s articles in The Wall Street Journal and you may have a copy of his book, The Boom, on your bookshelf.
Gold is best known for reporting on the Macondo blowout for which he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and a winner of a Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism. Today, Gold covers global energy topics, but specifically follows the U.S. energy boom and fracking. He is the best known journalist reporting on the O&G industry today.
Tony Hayward
Tony Hayward, former chief executive at BP, is a controversial public figure, but one that is widely recognized as the face of the Macondo oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Hayward joined BP in 1982 as a rig geologist and BP named him CEO on Jan. 12, 2007. The Macondo blowout occurred just over three years later on April 20, 2010. On May 30 Hayward told a reporter “we’re sorry for the massive disruption it’s caused to their lives. There’s no one who wants this thing over more than I do, I’d like my life back.”
In the wake of this comment, US Representative Charlie Melancon called for Hayward to resign. President Barak Obama commented to NBC on June 8 that Hayward “wouldn’t be working for me after any of those statements.” In July 2010 BP announced Hayward would step down in October 2010 and Robert Dudley would replace him. Today Hayward is chairman of Glencore Xstrata.
Eike Batista
From riches to rags, Eike Batista is a one-time O&G billionaire, ranking as high as seventh of the wealthiest people in the world. He is best known for losing all of his riches in a mere 2 years. With a net worth of $30 billion in 2012, Bloomberg reported in January 2014 that Batista “has a negative net worth.”
Batista’s former oil company, OGX, declared bankruptcy in October 2013, draining Batista’s bank account as he tried to pay off debt. Forbes wrote that the fall of OGX and Batista is primarily blamed on “mismanagement and over-optimism of projections in risky deepwater drilling.” OGX, under Batista’s leadership, claimed it would pump 650,000 b/d, but only pumped 15,000, leading its investors to withdraw. Other management decisions in addition to economic issues played into the collapse Batista as well.
MukeshAmbani
India’s richest person, MukeshAmbani, may not be the most recognizable face outside of the industry, but his house is known worldwide. Antilia, Ambani’s house, is 60-stories high, towering hundreds of feet tall. It features several levels of parking for 168 cars, a separate health club for each family member, a theater where Ambani watches as many as three Bollywood films per week, guest quarters and a helipad. Ambani has hired 600 staff to run the house.
MukeshAmbani rose to be the richest person in India as Reliance Industries became more profitable. Ambani inherited Reliance from his father who treated his son like a partner and allowed Mukesh to the freedom to take risks. Those risks paid off when Reliance made the biggest natural gas discovery in India and the world’s largest gas discovery of 2002 – D2 block in the Krishna-Godavari basin in the Bay of Bengal.
James Hackett
From Anadarko’s c-suite to Harvard divinity school to private equity partner, this accomplished oilman was once rumored to be considering a run for public office. Hackett’s energy experience includes leadership positions in engineering, finance and marketing with NGC Corp., Burlington Resources Inc. and Amoco Oil Co. He served as Devon’s COO, and has acted as a director for Halliburton. He is also a former adjunct professor of finance at Rice University. It’s hard to imagine a more successful career than the one James Hackett’s CV documents
Harold Hamm
Harold Hamm is the face of the Bakken. Founder and CEO of Continental Resources, Hamm pioneered the development of the Bakken. Forbes ranks Hamm as the 39th richest person in the world with a net worth as of mid-August 2014 of $19 billion.
Hamm’s Continental Resources, of which he owns 70%, is the biggest operator in North Dakota’s Bakken. In 1995 when the Bakken play was first discovered, reserve estimates were put at 150 MMbbl. Today, Continental Resources alone produces approximately 150,000 b/d, doubling its output over the last five years. Hamm told Forbes, “we’ll double it again in the next five years.
There are many famous faces in O&G, and we can’t recognize them all. Some honorable mentions not on our list include ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson, OPEC Secretary General Abdalla Salem El-Badri, and Chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission Barry Smitherman. If we missed a big name you know, let us know in the comments section of this post.
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