Like any oil tycoon, the Sheikh has courted controversy over the years, but at 67 he seems to have weathered the storm well. As well his oil exploits, Al Amoudi has investments in gold mining and owns a number of properties and hotels across the world. With refineries in Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Sweden, Al Amoudi owns 70% of the National Oil Company of Ethiopia. Although his first millions came in the form of construction in Saudi Arabia, it is through oil that the mogul converted this fortune to the big league billions. Al Amoudi is the son of a Saudi father and Ethiopian mother holds dual citizenship in both countries. With Saudi Arabia the world’s second largest producer of oil in the world after Russia, it's also the world’s largest exporter of the fuel globally. Sheikh Mohammed Al Amoudi is reminder on our list that it isn't just the Russians who know about oil. This American of German descendent is an exemplary case of the American Dream. This oil tycoon might be hurting the environment, but his family are balancing out their karma: From a $3 billion fund, the George Kaiser Family Foundation annually donates millions of dollars towards early childhood education. George Kaiser inherited his family’s vast oil fortune, which was built up over the last century, and today is also in control of the Bank of Oklahoma and he continues to oversee the extraction of oil from fields in the United States and Canada. When the Kaiser family fled Nazi Germany, they settled in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where they remain to this day.
Whereas names like Rockefeller and Guggenheim will forever be associated with the early oil rush of the nineteenth century, the Kaiser family arrived relatively late on the scene. George Kaiser, on the other hand, is the kind of oil baron the West - and certainly Americans - are more familiar with. Where Alexei Kuzmichev and his ilk for many represent the new world, new money and for that matter new oil.
With oligarchs who model themselves on The Godfather and owners of some of the largest houses in the world, our top ten list of the richest oil tycoons is not one to be missed! Our look at the top ten wealthiest oil tycoons demonstrates this shift to the East but there are still a couple of surprises. In spite of concerns that the use of oil is both harmful to the environment and unsustainable in the long run, there seems to be no end to the wealth coming from these oil rich-states. The result is that, today, the majority of the world’s oil tycoons are not from the Rockefeller or Hunt families but are instead former Soviet civil servants who learnt about the industry from the inside out. The fall of the Soviet Union meant big business for those with their eye on this liquid asset and there were many in Russia who pounced on the prize as soon as it became available. The real game changer in the world’s oil industry in recent years, though, has undoubtedly been the privatisation of the oil industry in the largest country in the world - Russia. However, the success of the Middle Eastern oil industries has been a contributing factor in political unrest and battles for the precious resources: from the Gulf Wars to the more recent ousting of Gaddafi in Libya, turmoil in the Middle East reveals the extent to which this limited natural resource is still contested asset.
The oil-rich Middle East, in particular Saudi Arabia, is now famed for its fields of black gold. Striking this 'black gold' is the ultimate game-changer in any playing field but while historically the oil boom was firmly associated with the United States, the tables have turned somewhat in more recent years. Finding oil is pretty much an instant introduction to the world of the high-flying billionaire and its discover brings success to businesses, financial sectors and investors in the region. Anyone who knows a thing or two about rich lists knows that oil can make or break a man - or indeed, a nation.
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