The U.S. and global economies have continued to mint high-net-worth individuals at a historic clip, with wealth intelligence firm Altrata noting that the combined wealth of the world’s billionaires jumped 12.8% Y/Y to a record $15.1 trillion in 2025. The ranks of the “Three Comma Club” hit a record 3,795 people as the AI boom turbocharged wealth creation across the globe. Not surprisingly, tech has been a major driver of new wealth, with tech billionaire wealth tripling over the past decade. However, ultra-high-net-worth investors and family offices are now following the smart money into another surging sector: Energy.
Family offices are increasingly making opportunistic plays in oil and gas, looking to cash in on high energy prices triggered by the war in Iran as well as rapidly growing energy demand driven by the AI boom. According to Bank of America’s Andrew Dock, family offices are taking a keen interest in infrastructure assets such as pipelines and export facilities as they take a longer-term view of energy demand, “It’s not a cyclical play. This isn’t a commodity trade anymore. It’s a structural shift,” Dock told CNBC.
However, these smaller investors are facing an increasingly crowded market and heightened valuations: according to Wood Mackenzie, oil and gas merger and acquisition (M&A) spending reached a two-year high during the first half of 2026, led by Devon's (NYSE:DVN) $25 billion merger with Coterra Energy as well as Shell’s (NYSE:SHEL) $16 billion acquisition of ARC Resources. Thankfully, there are still some opportunities for these speculators to carve out niche investments where the big oil and gas firms are not looking, “A family office can dive in and buy a $30 million non-operated asset that’s really kind of undervalued because there’s just not a huge buyer universe that is focused on that band of value,” Cody Carper, partner at law firm Baker Botts, told CNBC.
And, they are in good company: leading commodity trading houses and hedge funds have been crossing over from exchange trading to acquiring physical U.S. shale oil production assets, particularly targeting assets that bypass volatile Middle Eastern chokepoints. To wit, giant Swiss commodities trader Gunvor Group is in early-stage talks to acquire natural gas assets in the Haynesville shale basin from Silver Hill Energy Partners for $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion and is also backing Oklahoma City-based Western Natural Resources to acquire and operate key domestic shale assets. Similarly, last year, Ken Griffin's Citadel expanded into upstream energy by acquiring Paloma Natural Gas (later rebranded to Apex Natural Gas) in a deal valued at ~$1.2 billion. More recently, the hedge fund has held multi-million dollar asset acquisition talks with private equity firms and bid on WildFire Energy in the Texas Eagle Ford shale.
However, this is hardly a new playbook. For years, Vitol Group, the world's largest independent energy trading house, has been executing a highly orchestrated capital-rotation strategy by buying U.S. upstream assets during oil price downturns and selling them during periods of surging valuations. In July, Vitol announced the divestment of its southern Delaware Basin venture, VTX Energy Partners, LLC (VTX), to Houston-based Verde Operating Company in a deal valued at ~$2.3 billion. Vitol acquired the assets, including 35,000 net leasehold acres and 46,000 surface acres across Reeves and Pecos, in March 2023 when oil prices were significantly lower. This mirrored the firm’s exit from its previous shale oil business after selling Vencer Energy to Civitas Resources (NYSE:CIVI) in 2024 in a deal valued at $2.1 billion. Vitol bought Vencer in July 2020 around the period when global oil prices crashed at the height of the Covid 19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, money managers and hedge funds continue to be bullish on the oil and gas sectors. According to recent CFTC Commitments of Traders (COT) data, managed money net-long positions on crude oil futures have jumped significantly, with money managers increasing long positions and unwinding short bets as global supply risks intensify. Last week, managed money long contracts climbed by +13,660 to 218,960 contracts, while short positions were systematically cut by -3,790 to 107,229 contracts. The significant increase in long positions comes at a time when oil prices have been surging, driven by compounding global supply risks, particularly escalating military tensions in the Middle East.
The oil price rally extended for a third week, with Brent crude for November delivery adding 1.0% to trade at $105.61 per barrel at 2.20 pm ET on Monday, while WTI crude for October delivery was up 1.1% to change hands at $101.2/bbl. Similarly, the fuel price spike continued its worrying advance, with the average gasoline price clocking in at $4.3163 per gallon while diesel soared to an all-time high of $6.2301/gal.
By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com
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