Autry Stephens Honored with The Lifetime Achievement Award at The North America Energy Capital Assembly 2024

Autry Stephens, pioneering oil tycoon and founder of Endeavor Energy Resources, is the 2024 posthumous recipient of the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s North America Energy Capital Assembly. This accolade celebrates his life and legacy, recognizing his monumental contributions to the energy sector over a distinguished career spanning more than four decades.

Autry Stephens, whose family farmed peanuts and melons on a small farm in DeLeon, Texas, transformed a basic engineering service into a vast energy empire. His strategic approach exhibits his industrious spirit, forming a vertically integrated conglomerate that now encompasses 20 independent companies and subsidiaries. Starting with engineering, his business grew to include trucking, well services, and construction, always prioritizing the acquisition of drilling rights in Texas—even during times when many larger firms shifted their focus overseas. Stephens' financial strategy of using cash instead of loans to secure drilling rights proved crucial during the 2008 financial crisis, helping his company weather severe industry downturns. This approach reaped benefits when oil prices skyrocketed past $100 a barrel.

Since founding Endeavor Energy Resources in 1979, Stephens guided the company to become one of the largest privately held oil producers in the U.S., managing about 470,000 net acres, including 344,000 in the strategic Midland Basin. Through innovative technologies like horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, Endeavor set various benchmarks in the industry. Autry Stephens has done more than just build a company; he profoundly shaped the energy industry, cementing Endeavor Energy Resources as a leader in America’s energy evolution. This year, Diamondback Energy merged with Endeavor, in a transaction valued at $26billion – a combination that has created a premier Permian independent operator.

As we celebrate Autry Stephens' Lifetime Achievement Award in memoriam, his story remains a compelling narrative of ambition, perseverance, and the enduring American spirit in the pursuit of energy excellence.

We look forward to celebrating Autry’s career, with the blessing of the Stephens’ family and Diamondback Energy, on October 16th at the North America Energy Capital Assembly Awards Dinner. We are inviting those who knew Autry to share their personal stories and memories of him, which will be featured in a special video honoring his life and impact on our industry. If you would like to join us and are interested in finding out more about this celebration of life, please email Matt Maginnis.