(Bloomberg) — Billionaire oil wildcatter Harold Hamm’s Continental Resources Inc. plans to increase production as the war in Iran sends crude prices soaring to the highest in four years.
“Continental is increasing our capital budget, which will increase production,” Chief Executive Officer Doug Lawler said in a statement to Bloomberg.
Continental is the first prominent U.S. oil producer to say publicly that it plans to ramp up output amid the Iran war, which has crippled supplies from the Persian Gulf and sent crude futures soaring 50% in four weeks to more than $100 a barrel. Hamm is among U.S. President Donald Trump’s most vocal supporters in the oil industry.
Lawler didn’t say how much the closely held Oklahoma City-based company was increasing production. Continental has operations in North Dakota, Oklahoma, Wyoming and Texas. It recently began pushing into Argentina’s Vaca Muerta shale patch.
Continental produced 475,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the fourth quarter of 2025, with about 43% coming from the Bakken field in North Dakota and 23% from the Permian Basin of Texas and New Mexico.
Prior to the war, Continental had budgeted capital spending of $2.5 billion in 2026, which would have been a 20% reduction compared with 2025.
In the months leading up to the U.S. and Israel’s attacks on Iran, fears of a global crude glut were forcing oil prices down to about $60 and below, threatening profit levels for many shale-oil companies.
U.S. crude futures surged 11% Friday above $110 a barrel after Trump vowed an escalation in the war in Iran over the coming weeks.