Oil and gas assets are drawing renewed interest from wealthy investors as the energy crisis and supply risks make the sector look more attractive over the longer term. According to Oilprice.com, family offices and ultra-wealthy investors are increasingly looking at pipelines, export facilities, and producing assets as a structural opportunity rather than a short-term commodity trade.
The report says global wealth creation is still running at a strong pace. Wealth intelligence firm Altrata estimated that the combined wealth of the world’s billionaires rose 12.8% year on year in 2025 to a record $15.1 trillion. The ranks of the “Three Comma Club” reached a record 3,795 people as the AI boom accelerated wealth creation. Technology has been a major driver of new fortunes over the past decade, but the article says ultra-high-net-worth investors are now increasingly moving into energy as well.
Bank of America’s Andrew Dock said family offices are particularly focused on infrastructure assets such as pipelines and export facilities because they are taking a longer-term view of energy demand. In his view, this is no longer just a cyclical or commodity-market bet, but a broader structural shift.
At the same time, competition for assets is getting tougher and valuations are rising. Wood Mackenzie said oil and gas merger and acquisition (M&A) spending hit a two-year high in the first half of 2026. The biggest deals included Devon’s (NYSE:DVN) $25 billion merger with Coterra Energy and Shell’s (NYSE:SHEL) $16 billion acquisition of ARC Resources.
Even so, the market still offers smaller niche opportunities. Baker Botts partner Cody Carper said a family office can step in and buy a roughly $30 million non-operated asset that may be undervalued because the pool of buyers focused on that valuation range is limited.
The article also notes that interest in physical energy assets is not limited to family offices. Major commodity trading houses and hedge funds are also moving beyond exchange trading and into ownership of U.S. shale production assets. Their focus is increasingly on assets that avoid volatile Middle Eastern chokepoints.
Gunvor Group, for example, is in early-stage talks to buy natural gas assets in the Haynesville shale basin from Silver Hill Energy Partners in a deal valued at $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion. Gunvor is also backing Oklahoma City-based Western Natural Resources in acquiring and operating key domestic shale assets.
Citadel has also expanded into upstream energy. Last year, Ken Griffin’s hedge fund bought Paloma Natural Gas, later renamed Apex Natural Gas, in a deal worth about $1.2 billion. More recently, the fund has held multi-million dollar acquisition talks with private equity firms and bid on WildFire Energy in the Texas Eagle Ford shale.
Vitol Group’s track record shows that this strategy is not new. The world’s largest independent energy trader has long used a capital-rotation model, buying U.S. upstream assets during oil downturns and selling them when valuations surge. In July, Vitol said it would sell its southern Delaware Basin venture, VTX Energy Partners, LLC (VTX), to Houston-based Verde Operating Company in a deal valued at about $2.3 billion. Vitol had bought those 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.
The company previously used the same playbook when it exited an earlier shale oil business, selling Vencer Energy to Civitas Resources (NYSE:CIVI) in 2024 for $2.1 billion. Vitol had acquired Vencer in July 2020, when global oil prices had collapsed during the height of the Covid 19 pandemic.
Financial investors are also becoming more bullish in crude futures. Recent CFTC Commitments of Traders (COT) data show that managed money net-long positions in crude oil futures have risen sharply as funds add long exposure and unwind short bets amid mounting global supply risks. Over the past week, managed money long contracts increased by 13,660 to 218,960, while short positions fell by 3,790 to 107,229.
Oil prices, meanwhile, have extended their rally for a third straight week. As of 2.20 pm ET on Monday, November Brent crude was up 1.0% at $105.61 per barrel, while October WTI crude gained 1.1% to $101.2/bbl. Fuel prices also continued to climb, with the average gasoline price at $4.3163 per gallon and diesel reaching a record high of $6.2301/gal.
