Autry Stephens Is Richest US Oilman After $26 Billion Deal (1)

Over the past six decades, Autry Stephens has worn nearly every hat in the oil industry, from trucker to driller to engineer.

Now he’s poised to don the crown of America’s richest oil tycoon.

On Monday Diamondback Energy Inc. agreed to buy Stephens’s Endeavor Energy Resources LP for $26 billion in cash and stock. The sale would vault Stephens to 64th place from 130th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index of the world’s richest people, making him the wealthiest oil driller in the country with a net worth of $25.9 billion based on the current Diamondback share price.

Autry Stephens in 2014.

Photographer: Brittany Sowacke/Bloomberg

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