Republican presidential candidate and faded President Donald Trump shakes fingers with North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum as Vivek Ramaswamy, left, watches at a marketing campaign rally at The Margate Resort in Laconia, New Hampshire, Jan. 22, 2024.
Jabin Botsford | The Washington Put up | Getty Photos
If faded President Donald Trump taps North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum to be his operating mate, the excellent beneficiary of the partnership can also very neatly be some other particular person entirely: Harold Hamm, the billionaire founder and executive chairman of shale oil drilling huge Continental Resources, who might perchance well perhaps presumably now not sleep with two worthy allies in a Trump White Apartment.
Burgum’s ties to Hamm and the shale oil drilling huge he founded are complex. Continental is the excellent oil and gas leaseholder in North Dakota, where oil and gas is the excellent industry by earnings.
The 2 men additionally have a friendship delivery air of enterprise: Burgum no longer too lengthy in the past contributed a rave review blurb to Hamm’s new memoir. And all the contrivance via his 2023 order of the order address, Burgum compared Hamm favorably to President Theodore Roosevelt, describing Hamm as an person “whose grit, resilience, laborious work and decision has modified North Dakota and our nation.”
But Burgum has an even extra private hyperlink to Continental: Burgum’s family leases 200 acres of farmland in Williams County to the energy huge for the firm to pump oil and gas, in step with beforehand unreported enterprise records and a federal financial disclosure fable.
Burgum has made as a lot as $50,000 in royalties since tiring 2022, while he’s been governor, from the take care of Continental Resources, in step with his financial disclosure, small print of which have not any longer been reported.
Consultants told CNBC that Burgum and his family enterprise doubtless made thousands extra from the settlement with Continental Resources since signing a contract with the firm in 2009.
This hyperlink between Burgum and Continental highlights one in every of the functionality risks for Trump of selecting a operating mate who has lived most of his adult lifestyles in non-public.
Burgum has never been subjected to the form of scrutiny that any individual adore Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., has passed via and from which Rubio has emerged politically intact.
Burgum suggested Trump in January, a month after he dropped out of the Republican predominant for president. Since then, he has change into an advisor to Trump on energy policy and joined a shortlist of contenders to be the faded president’s operating mate.
Hamm, meanwhile, is one in every of Trump’s excellent supporters in the industry. Burgum, Hamm and other industry advocates had been reportedly at a meeting at Trump’s non-public Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, where the faded president called on oil and gas executives to donate $1 billion to his marketing campaign in alternate for his plan to roll serve environmental regulations.
Hamm is co-cyber internet hosting an tournament for Trump that’s sponsored by the faded president’s political trek committee, Construct The US Colossal Again Inc., on Might presumably well also 22, in step with an invite.
Continental Resources donated $1 million to the plentiful PAC in April, in step with Federal Election Commission records. Hamm gave $614,000 to the Trump 47 Committee in March.
Burgum’s oil take care of Continental
The contemporary settlement between the Burgum Farm Partnership and Continental Resources became signed by Bradley Burgum, the governor’s tiring brother, in step with a land lease reviewed by CNBC.
Burgum spokesman Mike Nowatzki told CNBC the contract became drawn up years earlier than the governor became sworn into situation of job in 2017.
“North Dakota is a number one energy producer, including the No. 3 oil producing order. Tens of thousands of households and mineral house owners have the same arrangements,” Nowatzki talked about. “As the publicly in the market disclosures indicate: The cited settlement started a protracted time earlier than he become governor.”
Nowatzki did no longer solution explicit questions about the deal, Burgum’s role with the family enterprise or his relationship with Hamm.
A spokeswoman for every and every Continental Resources and Hamm did no longer acknowledge to a question for comment. A spokesman for the Trump marketing campaign did no longer acknowledge to a question for comment.
CNBC got Burgum’s private financial disclosure by a question to the Federal Election Commission. His enterprise records had been obtained via the North Dakota secretary of order’s situation of job.
Records from North Dakota’s Minerals Division reveals that the areas of the oil and gas wells suits the coordinates of Burgum’s family farm on his enterprise records. The order’s data doesn’t title Burgum’s address, nevertheless the location where the farm and 7 of Continental Resources wells are positioned is internal a small township named Brooklyn.
All seven wells had been active since 2011, correct two years after Burgum’s family signed an settlement with Continental Resources. The wells produced over 5,000 barrels of oil and thousands of cubic toes in pure gas in March alone, in step with primarily the most modern data from Drilling Edge. It be unclear how plenty of the seven wells are positioned straight on the Burgum property.
Burgum became elected governor in 2016 and reelected to a 2nd term in 2020. He’s no longer operating for reelection in 2024.
The Burgum Farm Partnership LLP, which oversees the family farm land in Williams County and Cass County, is value between $500,001 and $1 million, in step with the financial disclosure.
Doug Burgum is a managing partner of the Burgum Farm Partnership, and he signed the companies’ most modern annual fable in March. Burgum’s financial disclosure says the governor is a non-managing member and the firm is a “family investment” limited liability partnership.
The firm’s annual fable that became filed to the secretary of order’s situation of job in April lists Burgum, his tiring brother’s two children, his sister, Barbara, and his possess three adult children as managing companions of the family enterprise.
The oil and gas land deal says Continental Resources provides the Burgum Farm Partnership 19% of the proceeds from the gross sales of oil and gas Continental provided after it’s miles pumped from the Burgum property, in step with the contract and consultants who reviewed the records.
“The elevated merit is that the Burgum Farm Partnership doesn’t have to speculate any money to drill the wells, bag the hydrocarbons (no pipes, no tanks, no roads),” Edward Hirs, an energy fellow at the College of Houston, talked about in an electronic mail after reviewing the contract.
The royalty funds near in monthly and quarterly installments, in step with the settlement.
The solar sets at the serve of a pumpjack all the contrivance via a gusty night time in Fortress Stockton, Texas, March 24, 2024.
Brandon Bell | Getty Photos
Consultants demonstrate that landholders leasing their property to oil and gas companies can manufacture thousands of bucks extra beyond the royalties in bonuses and other funds.
“The firm will most frequently pay the land owner a ‘bonus’ for signing the lease (most frequently hundreds or thousands of bucks per acre, searching on how sizzling the market can also very neatly be),” talked about Jack Balagia, an adjunct professor at the College of Texas and faded widespread counsel for Exxon Mobil.
Ryan Kellogg, a professor at the College of Chicago who reviewed the contract, talked about the fable doesn’t converse small print of a bonus to the Burgum farm firm, with the exception of to present a low fluctuate of how worthy became paid.
“The up-entrance bonus price is no longer disclosed,” Kellogg talked about. “It be correct listed as ‘$10 and further’ where the ‘extra’ is potentially vital. Bonuses are nearly never disclosed in leases.”
The Burgum contract additionally says that the family enterprise made money from Continental Resources via one preliminary down price called “paid-up” on the lease, and not using a small print offered on how worthy Burgum and his family saw from that piece of the settlement.
“By paid-up, [we mean] a lease where all money for the term of the lease is paid upfront, and by a condominium put, we mean one with a down price and condominium funds as soon as a one year after that,” talked about Ted Borrego, an adjunct professor at the College of Houston Law Heart.
Burgum drilling contract raises questions
Authorities ethics consultants deliver the brand new small print on Burgum’s Continental lease deal underscore the true fact that if Burgum had been to aid put into effect energy policy in a Trump White Apartment — both as his vice president or in a Cupboard situation — his work might perchance well perhaps presumably for my piece merit the North Dakota governor and his family.
“There are potentially vital warfare of curiosity concerns with recognize to Mr. Burgum’s oil and gas leases if Trump had been to be reelected and Burgum chosen to play an administration role” in enforcing Trump’s energy policies, talked about Virginia Canter, chief ethics counsel for watchdog Citizens for Accountability and Ethics in Washington.
Trump has promised that one in every of his first acts moderately than job, if he’s elected, will be to put into effect a “drill, toddler, drill” energy policy and live delays in federal drilling permits and leases for American oil and pure gas manufacturing.
“A vital warfare of curiosity subject would come up, as an illustration, if implementation of those policies would affect the value of Burgum’s leased property interests, his oil and gas leases or the royalties he receives from Continental Resources,” talked about Canter.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum encourages voters to enhance Republican presidential candidate and faded President Donald Trump all the contrivance via a marketing campaign rally in the basement ballroom of The Margate Resort in Laconia, New Hampshire, Jan. 22, 2024.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Photos
Neither of Burgum’s two financial disclosures from his a hit runs for governor present a land take care of Continental Resources. North Dakota requires candidates for order situation of job to converse only the names of companies that develop no longer act as their major offer of earnings. No other small print are required to be disclosed.
Since Burgum first ran for governor in 2016, he’s disclosed to the North Dakota secretary of order’s situation of job that he and his wife, Kathryn, have a financial curiosity in extra than a dozen companies, including Burgum Farm Partnership.
But those three-internet page order records develop no longer specify how worthy of a financial curiosity they’ve in these companies nor any money they manufacture from those companies.
A candidate for president or Congress is required to converse many extra small print, including a amount of earnings from every of their resources all the contrivance via the earlier one year.
Burgum’s federal disclosure fable spans 26 pages and divulges rankings of carefully held LLCs, partnerships and resources. With Burgum’s bag value without concerns in the hundreds of hundreds of thousands, the Continental lease forms only a small piece of his earnings streams.
Burgum and Trump aligned on energy
Indirectly, it might perchance well most likely perchance perchance also no longer subject to Trump whether or no longer Burgum has been entirely vetted if the governor is the particular person he wants on his label.
For Trump, Burgum represents a key ally in the oil and gas enterprise, as the faded president seems to raise money from the industry’s executives.
Dan Eberhart, who runs oil and gas drilling firm Canary, talked just a few Trump/Burgum label might perchance well perhaps presumably support to develop this.
“Picking Burgum would assert extra industry donors to Trump’s orbit,” Eberhart talked about in a fresh interview.
“Nominating Burgum as VP would send a solid signal to the industry that we might perchance well perhaps presumably have an significant speak in a possible Trump administration,” he added.
President Donald Trump greets Harold Hamm after he became launched by Hamm at the Shale Insight 2019 Conference in Pittsburgh, Oct. 23, 2019.
Leah Millis | Reuters
Authorities ethics watchdogs have additionally began to take undercover agent of the relationship between Trump, Hamm, Burgum and others linked to the oil and gas industry.
“The truth that Mr. Burgum has an earnings producing, oil and gas lease association with Continental Resources itself raises its possess concerns, since Continental Resources’ executive chairman, Harold Hamm, no longer too lengthy in the past participated with other oil and gas executives and Mr. Burgum in the Mar-a-Lago meeting Mr. Trump held last month looking for $1 billion in fundraising from those in attendance,” talked about Canter.
“Beneath these conditions, Mr. Burgum seems uniquely positioned to be taught himself each and every financially and politically depending on what he’s in a plan to assert to the table that might perchance well perhaps presumably support the respective interests of Trump and Hamm,” she talked about.
Hamm’s firm has had intensive enterprise in North Dakota for over a decade, and the order is ranked in the head three states to invent oil.
In 2022, Hamm announced Continental Resources became investing $250 million into a pipeline that spanned 2,000 miles to grab carbon dioxide and pump it underground for storage in North Dakota. Closing one year, Hamm donated $50 million to a deliberate library in North Dakota honoring Roosevelt.
Hamm’s alliance with Burgum preceded a donation Continental Resources made to a PAC that backed the North Dakota governor when he ran for president. The firm gave $250,000 to the pro-Burgum Better of The US PAC in July, in step with FEC filings.
Burgum’s gubernatorial marketing campaign has on a peculiar foundation been backed by other executives in the oil and gas industry, in step with data from the nonpartisan OpenSecrets.
Burgum’s a hit marketing campaign for governor in 2020 got extra than $35,000 from those in the oil and gas industry. That amount is 2nd only to the extra than $1 million Burgum attach into his marketing campaign.
Correction: This narrative has been updated to replicate the correct spelling of Construct The US Colossal Again Inc. and the correct spelling of Ryan Kellogg’s name.
