Oil baron Autry Stephens has died at 86

The richest oilman in the United States has died, according to a statement Friday from Endeavor Energy Resources LP.

Autry Stephens, the founder of Midland-based Endeavor Energy Resources LP, has died at the age of 86, the statement said, after revealing to the Wall Street Journal in February that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Following his cancer diagnosis, Stephens agreed to sell Endeavor to Diamondback Energy for $26 billion, making him the richest oil driller in the United States. Stephans had already amassed a net worth of $14.8 billion before the Diamondback sale.

The deal also made Diamondback Energy the third-largest oil producer in the Permian Basin — behind only titans Exxon and Chevron — and bucked the prevailing consolidation trend in the U.S. energy sector.

Diamondback — which missed out on its bid to take over CrownRock in 2023 — won over rival Conoco in the acquisition of Endeavor, which had its eye on the company. Even Shell set its sights on Endeavor as long ago as 2018.

Stephens and Endeavor barely escaped the 2008 financial crisis that drug many oil companies under—in fact, Stephens told Forbes a few years after the crisis that he had to shut down nearly all of Endeavor’s rigs.

Stephens studied petroleum engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, earned a master’s degree, then took a job with the Humble Oil and Refining Company, and then the Army Corps of Engineers. He moved on to evaluating oil and gas holdings for a bank in Texas, then struck out on his own, drilling the first well in 1979 in the Spraberry Trend in the Permian. He also starred in the reality show Black Gold.

By Julianne Geiger Oilprice.com

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