Hildebrand is the founder and owner of Hilcorp Energy, the largest closely held oil and gas producer in the US. The Houston-based company produced about 345,000 barrels of oil equivalents per day in 2020. It has operations in Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, and Alaska where it's the state's biggest gas supplier.
Jeffery Hildebrand's net worth of $11.0B can buy ...
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Hildebrand's fortune is derived from Hilcorp Energy. He's the sole owner of the company, according to company spokesperson Justin Furnace.
Hilcorp produced about 345,000 barrels of oil equivalents per day in 2020, according to estimates from an energy industry consultant who wished to remain private because they weren't authorized to share the information. Hilcorp's revenue is calculated by multiplying production against the 12-month average price of WTI cushing oil and Henry Hub gas as of the end of 2021. Hilcorp is then compared to the enterprise value-to-sales and enterprise value-to-Ebitda multiples of publicly traded peers.
Hildebrand also owns 6,000 miles of oil and gas pipelines via Harvest Midstream, according to the company's website. Their revenue is estimated using the average revenue-to-pipeline multiples of three publicly-traded peers, and they are valued using peer enterprise value-to-sales multiples.
Hilcorp companies have $7.6 billion of debt outstanding as at March 2022, according to data on Bloomberg. This debt is recorded as a separate liability.
Hildebrand owns about 11% of Archrock, Inc., a natural gas contract compression services company, through holding companies including JDH Holdings and Hildebrand Enterprises, according to a March 2021 Form 4 filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
Justin Furnace, a spokesman for Hildebrand, said in 2012 the billionaire declined to comment on his net worth. Requests for comment since by phone and e-mail haven't been returned.
Born in Houston in 1959, Jeffery Hildebrand's father was a veterinarian who owned an animal hospital near the airport, according to the Houston Chronicle. His mother was a pilot, best known for winning the cross-country Powder Puff Derby before dying in a crash during the Angel Derby Air Race in 1974.
After attending the University of Texas at Austin as an undergraduate, Hildebrand received a masters degree in petroleum engineering at the college's Cockrell School in 1985. He worked as a petroleum geologist for Dan A. Hughes Co., American Energy Capital Corp. and Exxon Company U.S.A. before founding Hilcorp Energy in 1989. While much of the industry was struggling under the low oil prices of the late 1990s and early 2000s, Hilcorp expanded, often using debt to buy assets.
In recent years, Hildebrand has sold some of his Texas and Louisiana wells, and has raised $3.3 billion since 2010. In 2011, he purchased Cook Inlet wells from Chevron in his first foray into Alaskan exploration and production. Hilcorp was the largest closely held oil and gas producer in the U.S. in 2015, according to data compiled by IHS Herold and published in the Oil and Gas Finance Journal in 2016.
Hildebrand is married with three children. He focuses much of his charitable giving on related educational outreach programs.