Hunt is the owner and chairman of Hunt Consolidated, an oil and gas producer and one of the largest closely held companies in the US. The Dallas, Texas-based business also has operations in Peru and Iraqi Kurdistan. Hunt also owns ranches through Hoodoo Land Holdings and commercial real estate via Hunt Realty.
Ray Hunt's net worth of $5.15B can buy ...
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Hunt's fortune is based on his ownership of Hunt Consolidated, a closely held group with interests in energy, real estate and other diversified investments. It's one of the largest closely held companies in the U.S., according to its website.
U.S. production of 2.4 million barrels of oil equivalents and 2.65 million cubic feet of natural gas are based on data compiled by energy industry research website ShaleXP.com. Revenue of about $175 million is calculated using the trailing 12-month benchmark prices as of Jan. 1, 2022 and the enterprise value-to-sales of four public peers.
Hunt had a 60% stake in the Iraqi Kurdistan oilfield, Ain Sifni. In July 2021 it was removed from his net worth calculation because the legal and production status of the oilfield couldn't be determined. It was valued at $260 million prior to its removal.
Hunt owns minority interests in Peru's Camisea field. Revenue is derived as detailed in the footnote available to Bloomberg Professional subscribers and compared against the enterprise value-to-Ebitda of Targa Resources, EQT and Kinder Morgan.
The value of Peru LNG is based on the company's 2020 financial statements and the average enterprise value-to-sales multiple of publicly traded peers. A 20% discount for country risk has been applied.
The value of Hunt Refining Company is based on the company's September 2021 financial statements and the average enterprise value-to-sales multiple of publicly traded peers.
Hunt owns hundreds of acres of ranch land in Texas, Wyoming and Utah. Market values for 2018 are determined using five of the ranch's six county assessor records.
Ann Obeney, a Hunt spokeswoman, said he declined to comment on his net worth.
The youngest son of a man once considered to be the richest man in America, Ray Lee Hunt has been stewarding his father's Hunt Oil since taking over as chairman in 1974. In the four decades since, he has discovered one of the world's largest oil fields in Yemen, built up hundreds of thousands of acres of leaseholds in the Gulf of Mexico and Texas, and served as chairman of Southern Methodist University and the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank.
When Hunt was born in 1943, the Hunt oil empire was already one of the world's largest. His father, Haroldson Lafayette "H.L." Hunt, began in the oil business in the early 1930s, buying up leases in East Texas after learning someone had hit a gusher in the region. He turned it into one of the largest family-owned oil businesses in the U.S. He also built a large family, having been a bigamist, with each of his three families unbeknownst to the other. In the decades after his death in 1974, public battles ensued over the trusts he created for his grandchildren, while two of Ray's half-brothers, Bunker and Herbert, unsuccessfully tried to corner the silver market.
Ray has avoided the controversies of his extended family, building Hunt Consolidated into one of the largest closely held oil producers in the U.S., according to IHS Herold data annually published in the Oil and Gas Finance Journal. Three sisters, Ruth, Helen and Swanee derive income from the company, but have no voting equity, according to Swanee's autobiography and corroborated by Texas corporate documents.
Two years after taking over Hunt Oil in 1976, and 18 years after his first job at the firm, Hunt discovered oil in the North Sea. That site, the Beatrice field, produced over 177 million barrels and led to a pattern of Hunt prospecting for oil in regions thought to be dry. In 1984, he hit his largest discovery, in Yemen. The jackpot went on to produce more than 150,000 barrels of oil per day and ultimately unlocked about 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. In 2000, Hunt joined a syndicate to operate Peru's vast Camisea gas fields and a related pipeline and LNG business. The next year, Hunt acquired two Canadian companies, one of which held leases to almost 400,000 acres off the Gulf of Mexico. In 2007, Hunt reached agreement with the government of the autonomous Kurd region of Iraq to develop its oil reserves. Over the years, Hunt diversified into stock and venture capital investments, including biotechnology and U.S. commercial real estate.
He and wife Nancy Ann, his college sweetheart, are well-known supporters of SMU and Dallas charities.