The last time we profiled Harold Hamm, the billionaire founder of Continental Resources, it was early 2009 and oil prices had slumped to $40 a barrel. This was bad news for Hamm's foray into the vast Bakken oil play that spreads under North Dakota and Montana. Tight rocks and tricky drilling there necessitate $50 crude to break even. Now with oil back near $100, Hamm is sitting pretty. He's set to invest $1 billion in the Bakken this year in his quest to prove that it is the biggest oilfield in the U.S. and among the top five in the world. "Out of all the oil plays in the U.S., there's just one Bakken," Hamm says. "It towers above everything else."
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