[Editor's note: A version of this story appears in the November 2019 edition of Oil and Gas Investor. Subscribe to the magazine here.]

In the most unironic way possible, Carl Icahn’s eponymous website pays homage to the words and wisdom of a master investor.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the investor quoted is Carl Icahn himself: “A lot of people die fighting tyranny. The least I can do is vote against it.”

Just in case you imagine the legendary activist investor made this statement during the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the quote is taken from a 1988 Texaco shareholder meeting. Similar? Maybe. But, no, not quite the same thing.

Still, it was interesting to see Icahn in August assail the Occidental Petroleum Corp. acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. for a multiplicity of sins—the worst, apparently, being naive Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub’s agreement to take $10 billion in financing from Warren Buffett.

Icahn complained that his fellow billionaire’s financing deal was like “taking candy from a baby.” Buffett received preferred stock that pays an 8% dividend yield and another $1.2 billion “simply for providing the financing,” according to a letter Icahn sent to shareholders.

Yet as he tsk-tsked Hollub, Icahn extended a golf clap to Buffett.

“You can’t blame, Warren, if Hollub was arrogant enough to negotiate a deal with Buffett of this magnitude despite her admittedly limited experience in M&A,” Icahn wrote in August. “… One might say in Warren’s defense that it was almost his fiduciary duty to Berkshire Hathaway to accept it.”

Thanks for continuing to take a stand, Carl.

Still, this billionaire banter and few recent deals does raise a question: Is oil and gas investing the new yachting for the super-wealthy? Many a billionaire has, of course, been made in the oil and gas world. But more recently, the billionaires have been seeking out investments in the void created by Wall Street.

Recall that in July, football fan Jerry Jones invested $475 million in Comstock Resources Inc. as it purchased Covey Park Energy LLC. To that point, Jones invested $1.1 billion in the company. For perspective: Jones bought a 357-foot superyacht in January for $250 million, Forbes reported. Steven Spielberg, for even more perspective, owns a 280-foot yacht. Icahn tried to sell his 177-footer in 2008, but apparently still owns it.

“Executive Q&A: Jerry Jones” featured in the May 2019 issue of Oil and Gas Investor

In September, at yacht-free Contango Oil & Gas Co., there seemed to be an inexplicable revving of the company’s A&D engine—a mystery solved by a brief inspection of the billionaire under the hood. Real estate investor John C. Goff and his various companies own about 35% of Contango’s equity—including a $25 million investment made in July.

In September, Contango put that money to use in a pair of acquisitions encompassing about 450,000 net acres in Oklahoma for $155 million. What’s most notable about the pending deals for White Star Petroleum Inc. and Will Energy Properties is that they’re worth about 78% of the company’s $198 million market capitalization as of early October.

Contango, which has made its focus the southern Delaware Basin since 2016, released an investor presentation in September, available for download in a file cryptically named “Project Crusader.” The presentation gives additional insight into the company’s plans.

Contango wants to purchase strategic, long-lived PDP-focused assets in a market “ripe for consolidation.” The pipeline of deals, it argues, is becoming more active, “with expected fall 2019 borrowing base cuts across the industry due to lower bank price decks.”

RELATED:

Contango Outbids Mach Resources For Oklahoma’s White Star

Contango To Acquire Nearly 160,000 Net Acres Across Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas

The company will continue to develop its Permian Basin assets in its Bullseye development while hunting for deals in a down market.

In the province of billionaires, it seems there are those who parachute in, like Icahn, and those with boots on the ground, like Goff and Jones.

So, what might billionaires know that the market is missing? Jones bought the Dallas Cowboys in 1989 for $140 million. The franchise is now worth $5.5 billion. Goff, a Contango board member, made his fortune purchasing distressed debt in oil and gas, health care, insurance and banking before selling his company in 2007 for $6.5 billion. More recently he’s invested in Canyon Ranch, “the recognized leader in healthy living and luxury spa vacations.”

Billionaires are today’s fashionable villains. In the book “The Triumph of Injustice,” set to be released Oct. 15, two economists found that the 400 richest U.S. families paid a lower effective tax rate than the bottom half of American households.

But what billionaires with a little extra cash seem to have in common is knowing a bargain when they see one—and to them, oil and gas companies must look like iPads at Dollar General.

Also, yachts. They have that in common.

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