Tanking oil prices could derail Oklahoma oilman's billion-dollar divorce payout

Tanking oil prices could derail Oklahoma oilman's billion-dollar divorce payout
(Image credit: Jemal Countess/Getty Images)

Russia isn't the only one rueing the sharp drop in oil prices. When Oklahoma billionaire Harold Hamm was ordered to pay ex-wife Sue Ann Arnall a record $1 billion in their divorce hearing last month, he called the judgment "fair and equitable" — Arnell's lawyers had sought half the couple's estimated $17 billion fortune.

But now that oil has fallen to $57 a barrel, cutting the value of Hamm's stock in his company, Continental Resources, to $9.3 billion, from as much as $19 billion in August, Hamm has appealed the "erroneous and inequitable" divorce ruling, Reuters reports. Continental is the biggest driller in the North Dakota fracking boom.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.