‘he's There To Run It’: Trump’s Energy Whisperer Looks Ready To Call The Shots At Major Oil Trade Association

Harold Hamm, the shale-oil pioneer President Donald Trump has called his "original oil guy," may soon sit in the driver’s seat of one of the largest oil trade associations in the country, people familiar with the matter told POLITICO.

Hamm, a wildcatter oil tycoon who regularly bends Trump’s ear while visiting Mar-A-Lago, merged his Domestic Energy Producers Alliance this summer with the much larger Independent Petroleum Association of America. The move puts one of Trump’s biggest oil industry allies atop a trade group that employs 12 people to keep an adversarial eye on environmental regulations and promote a more parochial view of oil and gas production than Exxon Mobil, Chevron and other companies with a more international presence. It calls itself the oil industry’s “strongest presence in the nation's capital.”

The IPAA billed the merger, which received little public fanfare, as a way for the two groups to speak with one voice. But people familiar with the two groups expect that one voice to be Harold Hamm himself.

"Harold Hamm obviously was a huge part of the energy dominance in America. He drove it, in my opinion. He started DEPA, and now he's carrying that on with IPAA," said Patrick Montalban, head of a family oil company in Cut Bank, Montana, and a longtime board member of DEPA who recently joined the board of IPAA.

Many of those people are already calling Hamm the chair of IPAA. The organization isn't dismissing the prospect, but says there's nothing formal to announce at the moment. To some insiders, the title is irrelevant.

“Whatever the title is going to be, and however the role is formally defined, he’s not there to be an observer. He’s not there to offer suggestions," said an industry executive familiar with industry trade associations granted anonymity to discuss sensitive relations between such groups. "He’s there to run it.”

Messages sent to Continental Resources seeking an interview or a comment from Hamm were not returned.

This story is based on interviews and conversations with seven people familiar with the merger, DEPA and IPAA. Some were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters in the industry.

Hamm has long been a confidant of Trump’s on energy issues. The 80-year-old billionaire founder of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources is unapologetically hostile to environmental regulation and has shown a willingness to brawl with other segments of the oil and gas industry — including the oil majors.

"The independents have always been much more willing to roughhouse in both politics and policy than have been the majors," said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, "and that is likely to become even more evident as Hamm’s influence expands.”

But it comes at a curious time, he said. Most Washington lobby shops are preparing their appeals to Democrats, who are favored to take control of at least one chamber of Congress in the upcoming midterm elections. Jillson said Hamm could serve as a "lightning rod" at IPAA for Democrats itching to undo, or at least denounce, Trump's energy policies.

"The Democrats are not going to listen to these guys," Jillson said. "Harold Hamm is a well-known name in the energy industry. His policy and politics are very closely associated with Donald Trump."

From Enid to Mar-a-Lago

Hamm started Continental Resources in 1967 with a one-truck operation in Enid, Oklahoma, growing it into a multi-billion-dollar operation. He gained national prominence in the mid-2000s by showing the directional drilling and fracking technologies that had unlocked vast amounts of shale gas in the United States could also be used to extract oil.

That success, which helped turn North Dakota into a powerhouse oil producer, has left Hamm with a net worth north of $20 billion, according to Forbes, which recently ranked him as the 136th richest person in the world.

It also brought Hamm a touch of celebrity. Hamm's story was part of the inspiration for actor Don Johnson's character in the short-lived 2015 TV series "Blood & Oil."

"Harold Hamm is legit. The president listens to him when it comes to energy," said Mike McKenna, a White House energy adviser in Trump’s first term.

Hamm was the first oil executive Trump turned to in the January meeting of oil industry heads shortly after the U.S. snatched Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro and sought new investment in the country. Trump touted Hamm's "instinct for oil."

His rags-to-riches life story and wildcatter ethos have turned him into an icon among the oil “independents,” whose executives usually simply refer to him solely as “Harold.” Those independents focus mainly on exploration and production, rather than the pipelines and refinery operations like that of integrated oil giants Exxon Mobil or Chevron — companies Hamm has dismissed as too often willing to bend to government regulations on pollution or climate change.

Since the merger took effect July 1, DEPA leaders have taken 15 board seats at IPAA — more than a quarter of the seats, and a disproportionate share compared to the IPAA's financial size. And Hamm’s allies are already referring to him as the leader of IPAA, although he holds no official title there.

IPAA spokesperson Abigail Miller said Hamm has "expressed an interest" in becoming chair and the group is considering changing the timing of when a new chair gets chosen.

"IPAA would be lucky to have him in that role, but no formal decisions have been made yet," Miller said. "Historically, the current chair's term would terminate at the end of this year, but we are reevaluating that timing to determine if that still makes sense with the consolidation."

The current IPAA chair is Mike Hillebrand. Hamm has been a member of the IPAA board since 2024.

Formal or not, those who know Hamm said they have no question about the new arrangement.

"He's going to be chairman, to my understanding,” said Montalban, who is also chair of the National Stripper Well Association, which represents operators of small wells that produce 15 or fewer barrels of oil a day. “If I walk into a board meeting and say we've got an issue, I'll guarantee we're going to get it moved."

A tale of two trade associations

IPAA's fortunes soared in the early 2010s as smaller independents like Devon and Chesapeake Energy led the shale drilling boom. The group’s revenues peaked in 2014 at $14.5 million, but sagged by two-thirds in subsequent years as the industry struggled during the pandemic and international oil companies exited the group because of its climate policies.

Just as the pandemic hit in the early 2020s, "major independents" like Cimarex Energy (now part of Devon) and EQT expanded a rival trade association, American Exploration & Production Council, to represent the interest of multi-billion-dollar companies that focus on oil production rather than pipelines or refineries. That drained some of IPAA's clout, if not its membership dues. AXPC saw its revenue rise sharply from $1.2 million in 2019 to more than $9 million in 2024.

"IPAA was kind of getting a little bit lost in the shuffle," said an association executive granted anonymity to discuss sensitive matters within industry. “With Harold's backing, they have an anchor, and I'm sure Harold blessed this."

IPAA’s Miller acknowledged the group is working to grow its membership, but dismissed the idea that it had lost stature, noting its staff had frequently testified before Congress in recent years.

Giving Hamm the reins at IPAA could increase/ the influence of the group and the industry as a whole, said Denise Bode, who led IPAA as its president in the 1990s.

"This could help bring them back to really having a lot of attention," said Bode, who is now president of the Washington government affairs consulting firm Constitution Partners. "He's trying to make a difference here. And I think by doing this, he will be mentoring and restoring at IPAA."

Hamm landed on Washington's radar as energy adviser to 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Four years later, he pivoted earlier than most energy executives to Trump.

In 2024 — after an early primary-season flirtation supporting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — it was Hamm who organized the Mar-a-Lago meetup at which Trump pressed oil company executives to give him $1 billion in contributions, calling it a "deal" for them and promising deregulation and swift approvals. At a May 2024 fundraiser in Houston, Trump pointed called Hamm "my original oil guy."

Hamm himself has put more than $5 million toward Trump's political efforts since 2016.

Hamm has positioned himself and DEPA, which he founded in 2008, as the little guys fighting Big Oil and its lobbyists. Before he even started the group, he'd led a fight in court against an affiliate of Washington's biggest oil trade association, the American Petroleum Institute. Under Hamm's leadership, DEPA has bashed the supermajors for being too willing to compromise with "radical environmentalists" and other interests in Washington on climate and other regulations.

"DEPA was born out of the shale revolution and recognition of the increasingly diverging priorities of the US domestic energy industry and the large international/integrated oil companies," the group states in a fundraising solicitation posted to its website. "Nowhere has this divide been more evident than within the energy lobbying establishment in Washington — which is dominated by multinational, integrated companies."

API declined to comment.

Veteran Oklahoma oilman Mike Cantrell, who helped Hamm launch DEPA in 2008, said he expected Hamm's relationship with the other organizations would be "fraternal," rather than combative. But he thinks DEPA has been more effective than IPAA, pointing to Hamm's work on matters such as ending the U.S. ban on exporting crude oil.

"I would think that they would be more effective than IPAA," said Cantrell, a board member of the National Stripper Well Association and longtime IPAA member. "Just because they've been there 100 years at IPAA, that doesn't mean they're effective."

Still, DEPA's approach to lobbying indicates that under Hamm, IPAA would likely take a sharper tone against environmental regulations.

An early test for IPAA could be whether it carries on DEPA's role in a legal effort supporting the Trump administration's decision to repeal EPA’s endangerment finding, the legal foundation for many of EPA's climate regulations. While other oil trade groups suggested more nuanced approaches to addressing the finding, DEPA gave full-throated support to a complete eradication of the rule.

As of Aug. 7, DEPA is still listed as being part of the case, and IPAA is not.

IPAA didn't submit comments about what it wanted EPA to do. In a press release, after the administration moved to repeal the finding, the group applauded the Trump administration’s decision.

IPAA’s Miller said no decisions have been made and the group is "working with counsel to determine next steps on any outstanding DEPA matters."