The 70-year-old fracking pioneer struck it Big Rich the first time when his Chief Oil & Gas completed seven deals in seven years in the Barnett shale of North Texas and Marcellus shale of northeast Pennsylvania that were worth $7 billion.
“We’ve still got a ton going,” Rees-Jones said. “But to be able to exit operations frees my mind up to devote that energy to the Rees-Jones Foundation and the work we do, heavily in North Texas but also at places around the world.” The $2.65 billion deal with Chesapeake does not include non-operating energy and minerals investments, royalties and lease-hold interests held under the umbrella of Rees-Jones Holdings LLC.
, painted by the renowned Texas native G. Harvey. Rees-Jones paid a whopping $1.23 million — the most ever paid for a G. Harvey painting — when Christie’s auctioned the Western art collection owned by the late T. Boone Pickens in October 2020. He’s funny but not a comic. A big-game hunter who keeps exotic animals as a hobby at his massive ranch between here and Abilene.
They even went on safari together in Kenya at Rees-Jones’ invitation. “He’s a supporter of our foundation,” Nowitzki said. ”He’s a really, really nice man.”, Perot said. “He is the classic Texas businessman. His word is his bond. He’s straightforward, focused, has tremendous integrity and a delight to be around.
“This likely ends 38 years of being an operator in the oil and gas business for me,” Rees-Jones said. “But I want to make it clear that we are not getting out of the oil and gas business.”If Rees-Jones ever writes his autobiography, he’s likely to say that it all started with tadpoles. In the seventh grade, the banner headline was that Nikita Khrushchev had been overthrown. “That kinda dates me,” Rees-Jones said, laughing.
By 1992, he was back where he started, but by then, he was married to Jan and had a 2-year-old and a newborn.He gave up his toll tag because the Dallas North Tollway charged a nickel convenience fee for using one. So he threw quarters in the basket on his daily commute to downtown, saving him a dime a day. The big savings was giving up cable, which cost $40 a month.
They’ve held concerts for hundreds of guests entertained by surprise headliners such as the Eagles, Faith Hill, Brooks & Dunn, Bon Jovi, Pat Green, ZZ Top and Toby Keith. The last one before COVID-19 struck was a pop-up performance by Garth Brooks and his band for 600 guests at Jan’s 60th birthday in 2019.
Turner was initially bemused to learn that the Rees-Joneses raise exotic animals as a hobby at the couple’s Cook Canyon Ranch. “Jan’s devotion to animals should have made this seem logically to follow, but at the time it did not,” he said.