By Russell Gold
March 14, 2023
(Tom) Craddick owns slivers of approximately six hundred oil and gas leases and receives a percentage of the value of the fossil fuels produced from them. Much of his family is involved, and some of Tom Craddick’s holdings are co-owned by his daughter, Christi Craddick. That’s notable because Christi has been an elected member of the Railroad Commission since 2012, and currently serves as its chairman, which makes her the state’s top oil and gas regulator.
The family business mixes oil and politics, and business is good. Last year, the Craddicks’ mineral interests in hundreds of wells across seventeen counties entitled them to profits from an ocean of oil that, based on prevailing prices, generated about $10 million. What’s more, the appraised value of the family’s mineral holdings—based on anticipated future royalty payments—totaled more than $20 million. That doesn’t include royalties from wells that have yet to be drilled, which may be substantial.
Having a powerful state lawmaker and an even more powerful state regulator profiting from oil deals makes good business sense for the fossil-fuel industry. The sector “wields a lot of power and influence across the state, and I think it probably does whatever it can do to make sure it holds on to that,” said Dan Gattis, a Republican House member from 2003 to 2011 who was one of Tom Craddick’s lieutenants. “The oil and gas industry is going to work hard to protect itself. I’ve watched it happen.”
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