oiligarch

plural oiligarchs

1. derogatoryinformalA member of the ruling class that obtains their power from control of the oil industry.

   Microsoft profits handsomely from its work with the oil industry and Gates has built an empire around defending intellectual property rights, actively hindering adoption of low-carbon technologies (and vaccines) in the Global South. Abramovich is a Russian oiligarch.

   2021 December 19, Nick Gottlieb, “Omelas and the moral catastrophe of climate change”, in Canadian Dimension, archived from the original on 09 Oct 2022

   2 more examples

   In later life, he developed a passion for playing polo and growing wine – his polo team, Labégorce, is named after the vineyard that he owned near Bordeaux. Today, his descendants form one of the most influential ‘oiligarch’ dynasties. Their company, Perenco, is a low-profile yet mammoth player in the oil industry, extracting more than 250,000 barrels a day across the globe.

   2019 January 3, Jorrit Donner-Wittkopf, “The money behind the St Peter’s Perrodo Project: meet the Perrodo family”, in Cherwell.org, archived from the original on 16 Jan 2022

   Royal Dutch Shell has been an early mover in the oil-to-electrons trend – it also bought itself a utility, UK-based First Utility. The Anglo-Dutch oiligarch has also entered the retail EV charging space, following Oil companies are moving in on the electric vehicle charging space two different strategies in parallel.

   2018 July 21, Charles Morris, “Can Big Oil transition to an Electric Vehicle world?”, in RedGreenAndBlue.org, archived from the original on 25 Mar 2021