Fracker

Slowly, they marched toward a bigger role in the fracking industry. When competing Texas frackers looked to freeze the brothers out from the companies that distribute the sand needed to drill, the siblings opened their own sand quarry to thrive.

Conoco on Monday announced a $9.7 billion all-stock takeover of Concho Resources (CXO), a fracker squarely focused on the Permian Basin, the massive West Texas oilfield at the heart of the shale revolution.