Unknown family-owned firms remain monarchs of US oil patch

Publicly listed companies produce only 50% of total American oil, according to government data, while the nation’s privately owned companies control the other half. — Bloomberg

IF you grew up watching the 1980s’ soap opera Dallas (like me), you would have been engrossed by the depictions of seemingly hard-driving family-owned dynasties built on black gold.

Many of the serial’s melodramatic storylines were improbable, of course.