Police responded to at least 11 reports of burglaries and five separate ammonia leaks at West Fertilizer Co over the past 12 years, according to 911 dispatch logs and criminal offense reports Reuters obtained from the McLennan County Sheriff’s office in Waco, Texas through an Open Records Request.

Some of the leaks, including one reported in October 2012, were linked to theft or interference with tank valves.

According to one 2002 crime report, a plant manager told police that intruders were stealing four to five gallons of anhydrous ammonia every three days. The liquid gas can be used to cook methamphetamine, the addictive and illicit stimulant.

In rural areas across the United States, the thriving meth trade has turned storage facilities like West Fertilizer Co and even unattended tanks in farm fields into frequent targets of theft, according to several government and fertilizer industry reports issued over the past 13 years.

The cause of the April 17 blast at the plant in the town of West is still being probed, and investigators have offered no evidence that security breaches contributed to the deadly incident. There also is no indication that the explosion had anything to do with the theft of materials for drug making. Anhydrous ammonia has been ruled out as a cause because the four storage tanks remained intact after the blast, said Rachel Moreno, a spokeswoman for the Texas Fire Marshal’s Office.

MANY LEADS

Investigators are pursuing about 100 leads, including a call to an arson hotline and a tip that there had been a fire on the property earlier on the day of the explosion, according to Moreno. Authorities have not said whether either tip was credible. About 80 investigators from various state and federal agencies are contributing to the probe. They hope to determine by May 10 what caused the explosion, Texas Fire Marshal Chris Connealy said at a state legislative hearing on Wednesday.

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), one of several state and federal agencies that monitor security at chemical plants, declined to answer questions about the breaches of security at West Fertilizer Co. State investigators also declined to comment.

Thefts of anhydrous ammonia are common in McLennan County, where burglars siphon fertilizer from trailer tanks into five-gallon propane containers, said McLennan County Chief Deputy Sheriff Matt Cawthon, who took up the position in January.

After reviewing crime reports from the past 12 years and speaking to deputies who responded to some of the break-ins, Cawthon said security was clearly lax at the plant.

The perimeter was not fenced, and the facility had no burglar alarms or security guards, he said. “It was a hometown-like situation. Everybody trusts everybody.”

Chemical safety experts said the recurrent security breaches at West Fertilizer are troubling because they suggest vulnerability to theft, leaks, fires or explosions. Apart from anhydrous ammonia, the company stored tons of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that can be used in bomb-making. No thefts of that substance were reported to police.

“Regardless of what triggered this specific event, the fact that there were lots of burglaries and that they were after ammonia clearly shows this plant was vulnerable to unwanted intruders or even a terrorist attack,” said Sam Mannan, a chemical process safety expert at Texas A&M University, who has advised Dow Chemical (DOW.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and others on chemical security.

NEW LAW

Owners of West Fertilizer, responding through a representative, declined to answer questions about specific instances of theft or the level of security at the plant. The company has encouraged its employees to share “all they know” with investigators, said Daniel Keeney, a spokesman for the company.

The current owners of West Fertilizer are Donald Adair, 83, and Wanda Adair, 78, who bought it in 2004. Calls to a number listed for previous owner Emil Plasek were not returned.

In a 2006 permit application with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), the company reported it would protect ammonia tanks against theft or tampering and conduct daily equipment inspections. A TCEQ spokesman would not comment about security measures. He said the agency’s responsibility is to regulate emissions from the plant, not to oversee security.

Documents from the Texas Department of State Health Services show the West plant was storing 540,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate and 54,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia in 2012. Ammonium nitrate was among the ingredients in the bomb used by Timothy McVeigh to blow up the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995, killing 168 people.

After that bombing, Congress passed a law requiring facilities that store large amounts of the chemical to report to the DHS and work with the agency to ensure proper security measures are in place to keep it out of criminal hands and protect against such attacks.

West Fertilizer did not report to DHS, despite storing hundreds of times more ammonium nitrate than the amount that would require it do so. Depending on the grade of the chemical, companies are required to report if they store at least 400 pounds or 2,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate.

A 2005 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study identified hundreds of cases in 16 states where anhydrous ammonia was stolen for use in meth production. Some illegal labs mix anhydrous ammonia with ephedrine or pseudoephedrine and sodium or lithium to make methamphetamine, the U.S. Department of Justice reported in 2001.

In dozens of instances, the CDC said, the thefts by meth makers siphoning ammonia from tanks caused injuries or forced evacuations because gas was released into the environment. However, cases of ammonia theft have become less frequent since 2006, when new laws restricted the sale of pseudoephedrine, which is found in some common cold drug remedies, according to The Fertilizer Institute, an industry association.

Police records show West Fertilizer began complaining of repeated thefts from the facility in June 2001, when burglars stole 150 pounds of anhydrous ammonia from storage tanks three nights in a row. Nearly a year later, a plant manager told police that thieves were siphoning four-to-five gallons of the liquefied fertilizer every three days.

Randy Plemons, who was chief deputy sheriff during the years when the thefts occurred, declined to discuss specifics of his agency’s response to the repeated break-ins.

“Whenever we were notified of the burglaries and thefts we responded to those,” he said. “I can’t speak to every offense.”

Company owners downplayed security risks in documents submitted to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in 2006, saying thefts had dropped to zero over the preceding 20 months as meth makers now had found a substitute for anhydrous ammonia available at garden nurseries or major retailers.

VERY STRONG ODOR

Yet burglars and trespassers continued to target the facility. Following a series of break-ins in late 2008 and early 2009, including one where a trespasser visited pornographic websites on a secretary’s computer, police told plant manager Ted Uptmore – who has worked at the company for decades — to install a surveillance system. Later documents show the company complied. Uptmore did not respond to phone calls seeking comment for this story.

The last record of tampering was in October 2012, when a 911 caller reported an odor “so strong it can burn your eyes.” The firm dispatched Cody Dragoo, an employee often sent after hours to shut leaking valves and look into break-ins. That night, he shut off the valve but reported it had been tampered with.

Two weeks ago, Dragoo, 50, was among those killed in the blast while responding to the fire. (Editing By Janet Roberts, Martin Howell)

Police responded to at least 11 reports of burglaries and five separate ammonia leaks at West Fertilizer Co over the past 12 years, according to 911 dispatch logs and criminal offense reports Reuters obtained from the McLennan County Sheriff’s office in Waco, Texas through an Open Records Request.

Some of the leaks, including one reported in October 2012, were linked to theft or interference with tank valves.

According to one 2002 crime report, a plant manager told police that intruders were stealing four to five gallons of anhydrous ammonia every three days. The liquid gas can be used to cook methamphetamine, the addictive and illicit stimulant.

In rural areas across the United States, the thriving meth trade has turned storage facilities like West Fertilizer Co and even unattended tanks in farm fields into frequent targets of theft, according to several government and fertilizer industry reports issued over the past 13 years.

The cause of the April 17 blast at the plant in the town of West is still being probed, and investigators have offered no evidence that security breaches contributed to the deadly incident. There also is no indication that the explosion had anything to do with the theft of materials for drug making. Anhydrous ammonia has been ruled out as a cause because the four storage tanks remained intact after the blast, said Rachel Moreno, a spokeswoman for the Texas Fire Marshal’s Office.

MANY LEADS

Investigators are pursuing about 100 leads, including a call to an arson hotline and a tip that there had been a fire on the property earlier on the day of the explosion, according to Moreno. Authorities have not said whether either tip was credible. About 80 investigators from various state and federal agencies are contributing to the probe. They hope to determine by May 10 what caused the explosion, Texas Fire Marshal Chris Connealy said at a state legislative hearing on Wednesday.

A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), one of several state and federal agencies that monitor security at chemical plants, declined to answer questions about the breaches of security at West Fertilizer Co. State investigators also declined to comment.

Thefts of anhydrous ammonia are common in McLennan County, where burglars siphon fertilizer from trailer tanks into five-gallon propane containers, said McLennan County Chief Deputy Sheriff Matt Cawthon, who took up the position in January.

After reviewing crime reports from the past 12 years and speaking to deputies who responded to some of the break-ins, Cawthon said security was clearly lax at the plant.

The perimeter was not fenced, and the facility had no burglar alarms or security guards, he said. “It was a hometown-like situation. Everybody trusts everybody.”

Chemical safety experts said the recurrent security breaches at West Fertilizer are troubling because they suggest vulnerability to theft, leaks, fires or explosions. Apart from anhydrous ammonia, the company stored tons of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that can be used in bomb-making. No thefts of that substance were reported to police.

“Regardless of what triggered this specific event, the fact that there were lots of burglaries and that they were after ammonia clearly shows this plant was vulnerable to unwanted intruders or even a terrorist attack,” said Sam Mannan, a chemical process safety expert at Texas A&M University, who has advised Dow Chemical and others on chemical security.

NEW LAW

Owners of West Fertilizer, responding through a representative, declined to answer questions about specific instances of theft or the level of security at the plant. The company has encouraged its employees to share “all they know” with investigators, said Daniel Keeney, a spokesman for the company.

The current owners of West Fertilizer are Donald Adair, 83, and Wanda Adair, 78, who bought it in 2004. Calls to a number listed for previous owner Emil Plasek were not returned.

In a 2006 permit application with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), the company reported it would protect ammonia tanks against theft or tampering and conduct daily equipment inspections. A TCEQ spokesman would not comment about security measures. He said the agency’s responsibility is to regulate emissions from the plant, not to oversee security.

Documents from the Texas Department of State Health Services show the West plant was storing 540,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate and 54,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia in 2012. Ammonium nitrate was among the ingredients in the bomb used by Timothy McVeigh to blow up the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995, killing 168 people.

After that bombing, Congress passed a law requiring facilities that store large amounts of the chemical to report to the DHS and work with the agency to ensure proper security measures are in place to keep it out of criminal hands and protect against such attacks.

West Fertilizer did not report to DHS, despite storing hundreds of times more ammonium nitrate than the amount that would require it do so. Depending on the grade of the chemical, companies are required to report if they store at least 400 pounds or 2,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate.

A 2005 U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study identified hundreds of cases in 16 states where anhydrous ammonia was stolen for use in meth production. Some illegal labs mix anhydrous ammonia with ephedrine or pseudoephedrine and sodium or lithium to make methamphetamine, the U.S. Department of Justice reported in 2001.

In dozens of instances, the CDC said, the thefts by meth makers siphoning ammonia from tanks caused injuries or forced evacuations because gas was released into the environment. However, cases of ammonia theft have become less frequent since 2006, when new laws restricted the sale of pseudoephedrine, which is found in some common cold drug remedies, according to The Fertilizer Institute, an industry association.

Police records show West Fertilizer began complaining of repeated thefts from the facility in June 2001, when burglars stole 150 pounds of anhydrous ammonia from storage tanks three nights in a row. Nearly a year later, a plant manager told police that thieves were siphoning four-to-five gallons of the liquefied fertilizer every three days.

Randy Plemons, who was chief deputy sheriff during the years when the thefts occurred, declined to discuss specifics of his agency’s response to the repeated break-ins.

“Whenever we were notified of the burglaries and thefts we responded to those,” he said. “I can’t speak to every offense.”

Company owners downplayed security risks in documents submitted to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in 2006, saying thefts had dropped to zero over the preceding 20 months as meth makers now had found a substitute for anhydrous ammonia available at garden nurseries or major retailers.

VERY STRONG ODOR

Yet burglars and trespassers continued to target the facility. Following a series of break-ins in late 2008 and early 2009, including one where a trespasser visited pornographic websites on a secretary’s computer, police told plant manager Ted Uptmore – who has worked at the company for decades — to install a surveillance system. Later documents show the company complied. Uptmore did not respond to phone calls seeking comment for this story.

The last record of tampering was in October 2012, when a 911 caller reported an odor “so strong it can burn your eyes.” The firm dispatched Cody Dragoo, an employee often sent after hours to shut leaking valves and look into break-ins. That night, he shut off the valve but reported it had been tampered with.

Two weeks ago, Dragoo, 50, was among those killed in the blast while responding to the fire.

(Editing By Janet Roberts, Martin Howell)

Yet a person familiar with DHS operations said the company
that owns the plant, West Fertilizer, did not tell the agency
about the potentially explosive fertilizer as it is required to
do, leaving one of the principal regulators of ammonium nitrate
- which can also be used in bomb making – unaware of any danger
there.

Fertilizer plants and depots must report to the DHS when
they hold 400 lb (180 kg) or more of the substance. Filings this
year with the Texas Department of State Health Services, which
weren’t shared with DHS, show the plant had 270 tons of it on
hand last year.

A U.S. congressman and several safety experts called into
question on Friday whether incomplete disclosure or regulatory
gridlock may have contributed to the disaster.

“It seems this manufacturer was willfully off the grid,”
Rep. Bennie Thompson, (D-MS), ranking member of the House
Committee on Homeland Security, said in a statement. “This
facility was known to have chemicals well above the threshold
amount to be regulated under the Chemical Facility
Anti-Terrorism Standards Act (CFATS), yet we understand that DHS
did not even know the plant existed until it blew up.”

Company officials did not return repeated calls seeking
comment on its handling of chemicals and reporting practices.
Late on Friday, plant owner Donald Adair released a general
statement expressing sorrow over the incident but saying West
Fertilizer would have little further comment while it cooperated
with investigators to try to determine what happened.

“This tragedy will continue to hurt deeply for generations
to come,” Adair said in the statement.

Failure to report significant volumes of hazardous chemicals
at a site can lead the DHS to fine or shut down fertilizer
operations, a person familiar with the agency’s monitoring
regime said. Though the DHS has the authority to carry out spot
inspections at facilities, it has a small budget for that and
only a “small number” of field auditors, the person said.

Firms are responsible for self reporting the volumes of
ammonium nitrate and other volatile chemicals they hold to the
DHS, which then helps measure plant risks and devise security
and safety plans based on them.

Since the agency never received any so-called top-screen
report from West Fertilizer, the facility was not regulated or
monitored by the DHS under its CFAT standards, largely designed
to prevent sabotage of sites and to keep chemicals from falling
into criminal hands.

The DHS focuses “specifically on enhancing security to
reduce the risk of terrorism at certain high-risk chemical
facilities,” said agency spokesman Peter Boogaard. “The West
Fertilizer Co. facility in West, Texas is not currently
regulated under the CFATS program.”

The West Fertilizer facility was subject to other reporting,
permitting and safety programs, spread across at least seven
state and federal agencies, a patchwork of regulation that
critics say makes it difficult to ensure thorough oversight.

An expert in chemical safety standards said the two major
federal government programs that are supposed to ensure chemical
safety in industry – led by the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) -
do not regulate the handling or storage of ammonium nitrate.
That task falls largely to the DHS and the local and state
agencies that oversee emergency planning and response.

More than 4,000 sites nationwide are subject to the DHS
program.

“This shows that the enforcement routine has to be more
robust, on local, state and federal levels,” said the expert,
Sam Mannan, director of process safety center at Texas A&M
University. “If information is not shared with agencies, which
appears to have happened here, then the regulations won’t work.”

HODGEPODGE OF REGULATION

Chemical safety experts and local officials suspect this
week’s blast was caused when ammonium nitrate was set ablaze.
Authorities suspect the disaster was an industrial accident, but
haven’t ruled out other possibilities.

The fertilizer is considered safe when stored properly, but
can explode at high temperatures and when it reacts with other
substances.

“I strongly believe that if the proper safeguards were in
place, as are at thousands of (DHS) CFATS-regulated plants
across the country, the loss of life and destruction could have
been far less extensive,” said Rep. Thompson.

A blaze was reported shortly before a massive explosion
leveled dozens of homes and blew out an apartment building.

A U-Haul truck packed with the substance mixed with fuel oil
exploded to raze the Oklahoma federal building in 1995. Another
liquid gas fertilizer kept on the West Fertilizer site,
anhydrous ammonia, is subject to DHS reporting and can explode
under extreme heat.

Wednesday’s blast heightens concerns that regulations
governing ammonium nitrate and other chemicals – present in at
least 6,000 depots and plants in farming states across the
country – are insufficient. The facilities serve farmers in
rural areas that typically lack stringent land zoning controls,
many of the facilities sit near residential areas.

Apart from the DHS, the West Fertilizer site was subject to
a hodgepodge of regulation by the EPA, OSHA, the U.S. Department
of Transportation, the Texas Department of State Health
Services, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the
Office of the Texas State Chemist.

But the material is exempt from some mainstays of U.S.
chemicals safety programs. For instance, the EPA’s Risk
Management Program (RMP) requires companies to submit plans
describing their handling and storage of certain hazardous
chemicals. Ammonium nitrate is not among the chemicals that must
be reported.

In its RMP filings, West Fertilizer reported on its storage
of anhydrous ammonia and said that it did not expect a fire or
explosion to affect the facility, even in a worst-case scenario.
And it had not installed safeguards such as blast walls around
the plant.

A separate EPA program, known as Tier II, requires reporting
of ammonium nitrate and other hazardous chemicals stored above
certain quantities. Tier II reports are submitted to local fire
departments and emergency planning and response groups to help
them plan for and respond to chemical disasters. In Texas, the
reports are collected by the Department of State Health
Services. Over the last seven years, according to reports West
Fertilizer filed, 2012 was the only time the company stored
ammonium nitrate at the facility.

It reported having 270 tons on site.

“That’s just a god awful amount of ammonium nitrate,” said
Bryan Haywood, the owner of a hazardous chemical consulting firm
in Milford, Ohio. “If they were doing that, I would hope they
would have gotten outside help.”

In response to a request from Reuters, Haywood, who has been
a safety engineer for 17 years, reviewed West Fertilizer’s Tier
II sheets from the last six years. He said he found several
items that should have triggered the attention of local
emergency planning authorities – most notably the sudden
appearance of a large amount of ammonium nitrate in 2012.

“As a former HAZMAT coordinator, that would have been a red
flag for me,” said Haywood, referring to hazardous materials.

(Additional reporting by Anna Driver in Houston, Timothy
Gardner and Ayesha Rascoe in Washington, and Selam Gebrekidan
and Michael Pell in New York; Editing by Mary Milliken and
Robert Birsel)

It remains unclear what safety measures, if any, were
required of the company or whether West Fertilizer failed to
comply. But on Wednesday night, the company’s fertilizer complex
in West, Texas – population, 2,600 – exploded with such force
that 60 to 80 homes were flattened, the school and nursing home
took heavy damage and at least 14 people were killed,
authorities said.

In a 2011 filing with the EPA, the operators of West
Fertilizer told regulators that a typical emergency scenario at
the facility that holds anhydrous ammonia could result in a
10-minute release of the substance in gas form. That chemical,
used as a fertilizer, is toxic to inhale but is not considered
highly flammable or explosive, and the safety plan did not
envisage any blast scenario.

In a separate filing earlier this year to the Texas
Department of State Health Services, West Fertilizer disclosed
that, as of the end of 2012, the company was also storing more
volatile chemical compounds at the same address, including 270
tons of ammonium nitrate.

The same type of solid fertilizer was mixed with fuel and
used by Timothy McVeigh to raze the Oklahoma City federal
building in 1995, killing 168 people. Sales of as little as 25
pounds (11 kg) of the substance are now tracked by the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security.

Investigators said on Thursday they remained concerned about
volatile chemicals that may remain on the site, posing further
risk. One official, McLennan County Deputy Sheriff Matt Cawthon,
said ammonium nitrate was found at the scene. It was not known
whether the site used or stored the substance before 2012.

“This is a fertilizer company and as it is, it has that type
of component in it and it is a volatile product,” Cawthon told
reporters. “I don’t know about anhydrous ammonia. I’ve been told
about ammonium nitrate.”

Authorities are investigating what caused Wednesday’s blast,
Cawthon said.

Public records show that the family-run company in recent
years had at least two types of operations at its complex – one
that sold and stored liquid fertilizer and another that dealt
with dry fertilizer, using what experts consider more volatile
ingredients.

West Fertilizer is owned by 83-year-old Donald Adair, and
employed fewer than 10 people, according to a background report
on the company from business information firm D&B. Adair and his
wife, Wanda Adair, could not be reached for comment. A person
who answered the phone at Adair Grains Inc, West Fertilizer’s
parent company, said the owners had survived the blast.

Ted Uptmore, listed as manager of the plant, could not be
reached for comment, and other people listed in public records
as working at the plant did not return phone calls. Craig
Rogers, an owner at Security Truck Service, LLC, a contractor
who hauls fertilizers and was listed as carrying out an
independent safety inspection of the plant in June 2011, did not
return a call requesting comment.

In a filing with the EPA in 2011, West Fertilizer outlined
safety measures to deal with an incident involving only the less
flammable liquid gas, anhydrous ammonia. The filing, obtained by
the left-leaning Center for Effective Government, did not
envisage an emergency scenario that would cause a fire or
explosion.

PLANT’S SAFETY HISTORY AVERAGE

The privately held fertilizer plant, which has been in
operation since 1962, has been cited for safety violations by
regulators in the past. Records show the EPA fined West in 2006
for $2,300 for failing to update its risk management plan, a
blueprint required to ensure safe operations.

At the time, the EPA found that the firm had poor employee
training programs and did not have a formal written maintenance
program in place. The EPA has not fined West Fertilizer since
then, and the agency listed no outstanding violations as of
Thursday.

The EPA, which has officials on the scene, said in a
statement, “The facility, which is required by law to submit an
updated plan at least every five years, submitted an updated
plan in 2011.”

West Fertilizer is subject to EPA regulation because the
quantity of ammonia it stores on site is more than 10,000 pounds
(4,530 kg).

In December 2006, it received a 10-year permit from Texas
regulators that allowed for the operation of two 12,000-gallon
(45,425-liter) storage tanks for anhydrous ammonia. The permit
required West Fertilizer to carry out daily visual, auditory and
olfactory inspections. It was not clear whether the firm
required, or obtained, additional permits for operations
involving more volatile compounds.

In 1985, the company, formerly known as West Chemical &
Fertilizer, was cited five times by the federal Occupational
Safety & Health Administration. Two of the violations were
characterized as “serious,” with one related to the storage and
handling of anhydrous ammonia, federal records show. There were
no records of OSHA fines in more recent years.

At a news conference on Thursday, Zak Covar, executive
director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
described the plant’s safety history as average.

“They don’t have any negative complaints,” Covar told
reporters.

The Adair family is a fixture in the town of West. Wanda
Adair, age 79, is listed as a co-owner at West Fertilizer, and
as a director of the West Chamber of Commerce and a director of
the local branch of the Kiwanis Club, a volunteer group. A call
to the West Chamber of Commerce went unanswered.

A COMMON WAY TO OPERATE

Thousands of sites across rural America store potentially
explosive materials and blend fertilizer for farmers, similar to
West Fertilizer. In EPA reports, about 10,000 facilities say
they store anhydrous ammonia.

Nitrogen-rich fertilizers help promote crop growth and are
used by farms across the country.

Anhydrous ammonia is only flammable at temperatures
exceeding 1,500 degrees F (816 C) and would not be expected to
trigger such a massive blast, according to an expert.

“Farmers inject anhydrous ammonia into the soil and it is
not very explosive per se,” said K.A. Barbarick, a professor of
crop sciences at Colorado State University.

Despite the fiery TV images and death toll from the blast,
some in the fertilizer industry are not expecting calls for new
restrictions on where and how such facilities can operate.

An estimated 6,500 farm retail stores in the United States
blend, store or sell fertilizers to farmers, said Daren Coppock,
chief executive of the Agricultural Retailers Association. The
West Fertilizer plant is far from the only one near homes, he
said.

(Additional reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Ryan McNeill
in New York, Erwin Seba and Kristen Hays in Houston; Editing by
Janet Roberts, Mary Milliken and Peter Cooney)

Sue Ann Hamm, Harold Hamm’s second wife and a former
executive at Continental, filed for divorce on May 19, 2012,
Oklahoma court records show.

Documents in the case are sealed. But in a March 7, 2013
filing obtained by Reuters, Sue Ann Hamm alleges that Harold
“was having an affair” that she discovered in 2010, prompting
her to later file for divorce.

Harold Hamm, 67, is a leading force behind the U.S. oil boom
and served as the senior energy adviser to Republican
presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign. Time magazine
named him one of the most influential people in the world, and
Forbes listed him last year among the 50 richest Americans.
Ranked No. 35, Hamm is worth $11.3 billion, the magazine
estimated.

His estranged wife, Sue Ann Hamm, 56, has held key posts at
Continental. She has led oil-industry trade groups in Oklahoma,
testified to Congress on behalf of Continental and created
Continental’s oil and gas marketing units. She is no longer with
the company, her lawyer said.

The Hamms were married in April 1988 and have two adult
children, Jane and Hilary. Harold Hamm has three children from a
prior marriage that ended in divorce in 1987.

Whether the Hamms signed a prenuptial agreement is unclear.
Legal analysts who reviewed court filings said that without one,
the case could lead to a record-breaking financial settlement -
one that could exceed the $1.7 billion paid by News Corp.
founder and chairman Rupert Murdoch to ex-wife Anna in 1999.
One outcome could be a split of “marital property” that may
include dividing Harold Hamm’s controlling 68 percent stake in
Continental, currently worth $11.2 billion.

“I don’t know of anything that’s ever been this big,” said
Barbara Atwood, professor emeritus of family law at the
University of Arizona. “There’s just so much money involved.”

Continental was subpoenaed in the case last summer, and it
was ordered by the Oklahoma court to hand over documents late
last year. Four other companies controlled by Hamm also were
subpoenaed.

A review of Continental’s Securities and Exchange Commission
filings and company statements shows no mention of the divorce
proceedings. Although corporate governance scholars said
Continental had no legal obligation to disclose the Hamms’
divorce proceedings to shareholders, “It’s a lawsuit that
involves a potential impact on the controlling shareholder,”
said Charles Elson, director of The Weinberg Center for
Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. “Certainly,
it would be relevant to an investor if there is going to be or
could be a shift in control.”

After receiving inquiries from Reuters, Continental put out
a news release acknowledging the divorce case. The fight, the
company said, “is not anticipated to have any impact or effect
on the company’s business or operations.”

Hamm couldn’t be reached for comment. An attorney for Sue
Ann Hamm declined to comment, citing a confidentiality agreement
governing the case.

After the pending divorce was confirmed by Hamm on Thursday,
Continental shares fell by 2.9 percent to $86.17 in afternoon
trading.

Hamm, the 13th child of Oklahoma sharecroppers, started his
career at age 20, scrubbing scum out of oil barrels. A few years
later, he drilled a 75-barrel-a-day gusher in his home state,
helping pay for university classes in geology. He founded
Continental in 1967, two decades before he and the former Sue
Ann Arnall were married. She is an economist and a lawyer.

Hamm’s biggest breakthrough came in the 1990s, when he
helped discover the Bakken field of North Dakota, the largest
new U.S. oil prospect since the 1960s. The discovery helped
Continental lead a resurgence in U.S. oil production, using the
controversial drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing, or
fracking. The technique pumps water laden with sand and
chemicals underground to release previously unreachable oil
reserves.

Today, the Bakken yields nearly 700,000 barrels a day,
roughly 10 percent of American output. Continental controls more
than 1 million acres in the formation, which stretches from
North Dakota to Montana. The firm also owns oil and gas rights
in several other states, including Oklahoma.

Continental has said the entire Bakken field – being
developed by several companies – may contain 24 billion barrels
of oil. That would be enough to meet U.S. oil demand for more
than three years. Drilling by Continental alone
added 649 million barrels to the company’s proved oil reserves
between 2008 and 2012.

The firm says it controls drilling leases to more oil-rich
Bakken acres than any other company, helping to make Hamm the
largest oil baron in the United States.

Hamm directly controls 126.3 million shares, or 68 percent,
of Oklahoma City-based Continental and more through family
trusts. Those shares alone are worth at least $11.2 billion.

But his stake in Continental could change significantly as a
result of a divorce settlement. The firm’s massive growth
occurred during the marriage. Its share price has surged nearly
500 percent in the five years since an initial public offering
in 2007.

Under Oklahoma family law, wealth accrued through the
efforts of either spouse during a marriage would typically be
subject to “equitable distribution” between the parties.

“A court in Oklahoma may look closely at what each party has
contributed,” said legal specialist Atwood. “But it sounds to me
like both spouses here were working hard in the business.”

“Where there are concerns about company control in a
settlement, a spouse would usually get paid the value of the
shares,” she said. “This is going to be really interesting.”

Court records show that Sue Ann Hamm petitioned for divorce
in May 2012. But earlier Oklahoma court records suggest the
Hamms’ relationship has been rocky.

In 1998, Harold Hamm filed for divorce and demanded that Sue
Ann undergo a psychological evaluation. He later withdrew the
divorce petition and the case file was ordered destroyed this
year, on Feb. 13, according to Oklahoma court records. What
prompted the destruction of the file is unclear. In 2005, Sue
Ann Hamm subsequently filed for divorce; that case also was
dropped.

Her 2005 divorce filing is now a key issue in the Hamms’
divorce battle, according to a court document reviewed by
Reuters. Indeed, it could play a pivotal role in determining how
property – including interest in Continental – will be divided,
legal analysts said.

According to Harold Hamm, the couple “actually separated in
the fall of 2005 and have lived separate lives ever since,” the
court document says.

But Sue Ann Hamm’s attorneys counter that the Hamms
“continued to reside together (although they do own four homes),
travel together, attend public functions together, raise their
children together, file joint tax returns, and work together.”

In May 2012, for instance, Harold and Sue Ann Hamm jointly
hosted a fundraiser for Republican presidential candidate Romney
at their $3 million mansion in Nichols Hills, Oklahoma,
according to photos and media reports. The event raised more
than $2 million for the Romney campaign.

Last September, Reuters reported that Harold Hamm had made
political contributions that exceeded federal legal limits by as
much as 41 percent during the 2011-2012 election period.
Continental said at the time that the donations were made from
an account held jointly by Harold and Sue Ann Hamm and were
intended to be split between Hamm and his wife, which would have
kept the donations within legal limits.

In 2011, Harold and Sue Ann Hamm also jointly gave $20
million to a diabetes center at the University of Oklahoma named
for Harold Hamm, who has Type II diabetes. The same year, the
couple signed up for Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving
Pledge initiative, indicating their intention to dedicate most
of their wealth to philanthropy.

In a court filing two weeks ago, Sue Ann Hamm’s attorneys
say the Hamms agreed “to engage in marriage counseling sessions
in an effort to save their marriage” in November 2010, after Sue
Ann Hamm concluded that her husband had been unfaithful.

Whether the Hamms separated in 2005 or more recently is
crucial as the court determines how Harold Hamm’s assets will be
divided, legal analysts said. Under Oklahoma family law, the
increase in the value of an asset during marriage is considered
part of the total pool of “marital property.”

“In general, if you own property prior to the marriage and
you bring it to the marriage, it is separate,” said Marianne
Blair, a professor of family law at the University of Tulsa.
“But that separate property can increase in value. To the extent
the increase was due to marital efforts or marital funds,” it
can be divided by the court.

Hamm divorced his first wife, Judith Ann, in 1987, according
to Oklahoma court records. A document filed by Sue Ann Hamm’s
attorneys in the current case shows they received access to
marital records in the prior divorce in March.

Attorneys for both Hamms will present evidence about when
the couple separated and the resulting “date of valuation of
(the) business” on May 20, according to the court docket.

What’s decided could help determine whether their divorce
settlement rivals the largest reported divorce settlement to
date – the $1.7 billion paid by Murdoch to his ex-wife Anna in
1999. That settlement, in California, directly affected
shareholders of News Corp. because it awarded Murdoch’s three
eldest children stakes in the voting shares of the company.
Reports of the Murdoch divorce sent News Corp. shares lower.

Daniel Jaffe, a family law attorney in Beverly Hills,
California who represented Anna Murdoch, declined to discuss the
Murdoch case. But after reviewing the court docket and document
obtained by Reuters in the Hamm case, he said Sue Ann Hamm’s
decades of work for Continental was unique compared with most
divorce cases.

“She has a leg up because she worked for the company and she
can claim that a portion of her efforts went into making the
company what it is today,” Jaffe said. “She was married to him
when the value of the company went up. She has got to be looking
for a couple of billion dollars.”

Sue Ann Hamm, Harold Hamm’s second wife and a former
executive at Continental, filed for divorce on May 19, 2012,
Oklahoma court records show.

Documents in the case are sealed. But in a March 7, 2013
filing obtained by Reuters, Sue Ann Hamm alleges that Harold
“was having an affair” that she discovered in 2010, prompting
her to later file for divorce.

Harold Hamm, 67, is a leading force behind the U.S. oil boom
and served as the senior energy adviser to Republican
presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign. Time magazine
named him one of the most influential people in the world, and
Forbes listed him last year among the 50 richest Americans.
Ranked No. 35, Hamm is worth $11.3 billion, the magazine
estimated.

His estranged wife, Sue Ann Hamm, 56, has held key posts at
Continental. She has led oil-industry trade groups in Oklahoma,
testified to Congress on behalf of Continental and created
Continental’s oil and gas marketing units. She is no longer with
the company, her lawyer said.

The Hamms were married in April 1988 and have two adult
children, Jane and Hilary. Harold Hamm has three children from a
prior marriage that ended in divorce in 1987.

Whether the Hamms signed a prenuptial agreement is unclear.
Legal analysts who reviewed court filings said that without one,
the case could lead to a record-breaking financial settlement -
one that could exceed the $1.7 billion paid by News Corp.
founder and chairman Rupert Murdoch to ex-wife Anna in 1999.
One outcome could be a split of “marital property” that may
include dividing Harold Hamm’s controlling 68 percent stake in
Continental, currently worth $11.2 billion.

“I don’t know of anything that’s ever been this big,” said
Barbara Atwood, professor emeritus of family law at the
University of Arizona. “There’s just so much money involved.”

Continental was subpoenaed in the case last summer, and it
was ordered by the Oklahoma court to hand over documents late
last year. Four other companies controlled by Hamm also were
subpoenaed.

A review of Continental’s Securities and Exchange Commission
filings and company statements shows no mention of the divorce
proceedings. Although corporate governance scholars said
Continental had no legal obligation to disclose the Hamms’
divorce proceedings to shareholders, “It’s a lawsuit that
involves a potential impact on the controlling shareholder,”
said Charles Elson, director of The Weinberg Center for
Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. “Certainly,
it would be relevant to an investor if there is going to be or
could be a shift in control.”

After receiving inquiries from Reuters, Continental put out
a news release acknowledging the divorce case. The fight, the
company said, “is not anticipated to have any impact or effect
on the company’s business or operations.”

Spokeswoman Kristin Miskovsky didn’t respond to requests for
comment.

An attorney for Sue Ann Hamm declined to comment, citing a
confidentiality agreement governing the case.

Continental shares were trading down 2.1 percent at $86.86
by 3:16 p.m. EDT. They fell as low as $85.85 after the divorce
proceedings were acknowledged by Hamm.

Hamm, the 13th child of Oklahoma sharecroppers, started his
career at age 20, scrubbing scum out of oil barrels. A few years
later, he drilled a 75-barrel-a-day gusher in his home state,
helping pay for university classes in geology. He founded
Continental in 1967, two decades before he and the former Sue
Ann Arnall were married. She is an economist and a lawyer.

Hamm’s biggest breakthrough came in the 1990s, when he
helped discover the Bakken field of North Dakota, the largest
new U.S. oil prospect since the 1960s. The discovery helped
Continental lead a resurgence in U.S. oil production, using the
controversial drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing, or
fracking. The technique pumps water laden with sand and
chemicals underground to release previously unreachable oil
reserves.

Today, the Bakken yields nearly 700,000 barrels a day,
roughly 10 percent of American output. Continental controls more
than 1 million acres in the formation, which stretches from
North Dakota to Montana. The firm also owns oil and gas rights
in several other states, including Oklahoma.

Continental has said the entire Bakken field – being
developed by several companies – may contain 24 billion barrels
of oil. That would be enough to meet U.S. oil demand for more
than three years. Drilling by Continental alone
added 649 million barrels to the company’s proved oil reserves
between 2008 and 2012.

The firm says it controls drilling leases to more oil-rich
Bakken acres than any other company, helping to make Hamm the
largest oil baron in the United States.

Hamm directly controls 126.3 million shares, or 68 percent,
of Oklahoma City-based Continental and more through family
trusts. Those shares alone are worth at least $11.2 billion.
Continental shares have risen 21 percent this year and closed on
March 20 at $89.15, down 0.6 percent.

But his stake in Continental could change significantly as a
result of a divorce settlement. The firm’s massive growth
occurred during the marriage. Its share price has surged nearly
500 percent in the five years since an initial public offering
in 2007.

Under Oklahoma family law, wealth accrued through the
efforts of either spouse during a marriage would typically be
subject to “equitable distribution” between the parties.

“A court in Oklahoma may look closely at what each party has
contributed,” said legal specialist Atwood. “But it sounds to me
like both spouses here were working hard in the business.”

“Where there are concerns about company control in a
settlement, a spouse would usually get paid the value of the
shares,” she said. “This is going to be really interesting.”

Court records show that Sue Ann Hamm petitioned for divorce
in May 2012. But earlier Oklahoma court records suggest the
Hamms’ relationship has been rocky.

In 1998, Harold Hamm filed for divorce and demanded that Sue
Ann undergo a psychological evaluation. He later withdrew the
divorce petition and the case file was ordered destroyed this
year, on Feb. 13, according to Oklahoma court records. What
prompted the destruction of the file is unclear. In 2005, Sue
Ann Hamm subsequently filed for divorce; that case also was
dropped.

Her 2005 divorce filing is now a key issue in the Hamms’
divorce battle, according to a court document reviewed by
Reuters. Indeed, it could play a pivotal role in determining how
property – including interest in Continental – will be divided,
legal analysts said.

According to Harold Hamm, the couple “actually separated in
the fall of 2005 and have lived separate lives ever since,” the
court document says.

But Sue Ann Hamm’s attorneys counter that the Hamms
“continued to reside together (although they do own four homes),
travel together, attend public functions together, raise their
children together, file joint tax returns, and work together.”

In May 2012, for instance, Harold and Sue Ann Hamm jointly
hosted a fundraiser for Republican presidential candidate Romney
at their $3 million mansion in Nichols Hills, Oklahoma,
according to photos and media reports. The event raised more
than $2 million for the Romney campaign.

Last September, Reuters reported that Harold Hamm had made
political contributions that exceeded federal legal limits by as
much as 41 percent during the 2011-2012 election period.
Continental said at the time that the donations were made from
an account held jointly by Harold and Sue Ann Hamm and were
intended to be split between Hamm and his wife, which would have
kept the donations within legal limits.

In 2011, Harold and Sue Ann Hamm also jointly gave $20
million to a diabetes center at the University of Oklahoma named
for Harold Hamm, who has Type II diabetes. The same year, the
couple signed up for Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving
Pledge initiative, indicating their intention to dedicate most
of their wealth to philanthropy.

In a court filing two weeks ago, Sue Ann Hamm’s attorneys
say the Hamms agreed “to engage in marriage counseling sessions
in an effort to save their marriage” in November 2010, after Sue
Ann Hamm concluded that her husband had been unfaithful.

Whether the Hamms separated in 2005 or more recently is
crucial as the court determines how Harold Hamm’s assets will be
divided, legal analysts said. Under Oklahoma family law, the
increase in the value of an asset during marriage is considered
part of the total pool of “marital property.”

“In general, if you own property prior to the marriage and
you bring it to the marriage, it is separate,” said Marianne
Blair, a professor of family law at the University of Tulsa.
“But that separate property can increase in value. To the extent
the increase was due to marital efforts or marital funds,” it
can be divided by the court.

Hamm divorced his first wife, Judith Ann, in 1987, according
to Oklahoma court records. A document filed by Sue Ann Hamm’s
attorneys in the current case shows they received access to
marital records in the prior divorce in March.

Attorneys for both Hamms will present evidence about when
the couple separated and the resulting “date of valuation of
(the) business” on May 20, according to the court docket.

What’s decided could help determine whether their divorce
settlement rivals the largest reported divorce settlement to
date – the $1.7 billion paid by Murdoch to his ex-wife Anna in
1999. That settlement, in California, directly affected
shareholders of News Corp. because it awarded Murdoch’s three
eldest children stakes in the voting shares of the company.
Reports of the Murdoch divorce sent News Corp. shares lower.

Daniel Jaffe, a family law attorney in Beverly Hills,
California who represented Anna Murdoch, declined to discuss the
Murdoch case. But after reviewing the court docket and document
obtained by Reuters in the Hamm case, he said Sue Ann Hamm’s
decades of work for Continental was unique compared with most
divorce cases.

“She has a leg up because she worked for the company and she
can claim that a portion of her efforts went into making the
company what it is today,” Jaffe said. “She was married to him
when the value of the company went up. She has got to be looking
for a couple of billion dollars.”

Sue Ann Hamm, Harold Hamm’s second wife and a longtime executive at Continental, filed for divorce on May 19, 2012, Oklahoma court records show.

Documents in the case are sealed. But in a March 7, 2013 filing obtained by Reuters, Sue Ann Hamm alleges that Harold “was having an affair” that she discovered in 2010, prompting her to later file for divorce.

Harold Hamm, 67, is a leading force behind the U.S. oil boom and served as the senior energy adviser to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign. Time magazine named him one of the most influential people in the world, and Forbes listed him last year among the 50 richest Americans. Ranked No. 35, Hamm is worth $11.3 billion, the magazine estimated.

His estranged wife, Sue Ann Hamm, 56, has held key posts at Continental. She has led oil-industry trade groups in Oklahoma, testified to Congress on behalf of Continental and created Continental’s oil and gas marketing units.

The Hamms were married in April 1988 and have two adult children, Jane and Hilary. Harold Hamm has three children from a prior marriage that ended in divorce in 1987.

Whether the Hamms signed a prenuptial agreement is unclear. Legal analysts who reviewed court filings said that without one, the case could lead to a record-breaking financial settlement – one that could exceed the $1.7 billion paid by News Corp. founder and chairman Rupert Murdoch to ex-wife Anna in 1999. One outcome could be a split of “marital property” that may include dividing Harold Hamm’s controlling 68 percent stake in Continental, currently worth $11.2 billion.

“I don’t know of anything that’s ever been this big,” said Barbara Atwood, professor emeritus of family law at the University of Arizona. “There’s just so much money involved.”

Continental was subpoenaed in the case last summer, and it was ordered by the Oklahoma court to hand over documents late last year. Four other companies controlled by Hamm also were subpoenaed.

A review of Continental’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings and company statements shows no mention of the divorce proceedings. Although corporate governance scholars said Continental had no legal obligation to disclose the Hamms’ divorce proceedings to shareholders, “It’s a lawsuit that involves a potential impact on the controlling shareholder,” said Charles Elson, director of The Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. “Certainly, it would be relevant to an investor if there is going to be or could be a shift in control.”

After receiving inquiries from Reuters, Continental put out a news release acknowledging the divorce case. The fight, the company said, “is not anticipated to have any impact or effect on the company’s business or operations.”

Spokeswoman Kristin Miskovsky didn’t respond to requests for comment.

An attorney for Sue Ann Hamm declined to comment, citing a confidentiality agreement governing the case.

Hamm, the 13th child of Oklahoma sharecroppers, started his career at age 20, scrubbing scum out of oil barrels. A few years later, he drilled a 75-barrel-a-day gusher in his home state, helping pay for university classes in geology. He founded Continental in 1967, two decades before he and the former Sue Ann Arnall were married. She is an economist and a lawyer.

Hamm’s biggest breakthrough came in the 1990s, when he helped discover the Bakken field of North Dakota, the largest new U.S. oil prospect since the 1960s. The discovery helped Continental lead a resurgence in U.S. oil production, using the controversial drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The technique pumps water laden with sand and chemicals underground to release previously unreachable oil reserves.

Today, the Bakken yields nearly 700,000 barrels a day, roughly 10 percent of American output. Continental controls more than 1 million acres in the formation, which stretches from North Dakota to Montana. The firm also owns oil and gas rights in several other states, including Oklahoma.

Continental has said the entire Bakken field – being developed by several companies – may contain 24 billion barrels of oil. That would be enough to meet U.S. oil demand for more than three years. Drilling by Continental alone added 649 million barrels to the company’s proved oil reserves between 2008 and 2012.

The firm says it controls drilling leases to more oil-rich Bakken acres than any other company, helping to make Hamm the largest oil baron in the United States.

Hamm directly controls 126.3 million shares, or 68 percent, of Oklahoma City-based Continental and more through family trusts. Those shares alone are worth at least $11.2 billion. Continental shares have risen 21 percent this year and closed on March 20 at $89.15, down 0.6 percent.

But his stake in Continental could change significantly as a result of a divorce settlement. The firm’s massive growth occurred during the marriage. Its share price has surged nearly 500 percent in the five years since an initial public offering in 2007.

Under Oklahoma family law, wealth accrued through the efforts of either spouse during a marriage would typically be subject to “equitable distribution” between the parties.

“A court in Oklahoma may look closely at what each party has contributed,” said legal specialist Atwood. “But it sounds to me like both spouses here were working hard in the business.”

“Where there are concerns about company control in a settlement, a spouse would usually get paid the value of the shares,” she said. “This is going to be really interesting.”

Court records show that Sue Ann Hamm petitioned for divorce in May 2012. But earlier Oklahoma court records suggest the Hamms’ relationship has been rocky.

In 1998, Harold Hamm filed for divorce and demanded that Sue Ann undergo a psychological evaluation. He later withdrew the divorce petition and the case file was ordered destroyed this year, on February 13, according to Oklahoma court records. What prompted the destruction of the file is unclear. In 2005, Sue Ann Hamm subsequently filed for divorce; that case also was dropped.

Her 2005 divorce filing is now a key issue in the Hamms’ divorce battle, according to a court document reviewed by Reuters. Indeed, it could play a pivotal role in determining how property – including interest in Continental – will be divided, legal analysts said.

According to Harold Hamm, the couple “actually separated in the fall of 2005 and have lived separate lives ever since,” the court document says.

But Sue Ann Hamm’s attorneys counter that the Hamms “continued to reside together (although they do own four homes), travel together, attend public functions together, raise their children together, file joint tax returns, and work together.”

In May 2012, for instance, Harold and Sue Ann Hamm jointly hosted a fundraiser for Republican presidential candidate Romney at their $3 million mansion in Nichols Hills, Oklahoma, according to photos and media reports. The event raised more than $2 million for the Romney campaign.

Last September, Reuters reported that Harold Hamm had made political contributions that exceeded federal legal limits by as much as 41 percent during the 2011-2012 election period. Continental said at the time that the donations were made from an account held jointly by Harold and Sue Ann Hamm and were intended to be split between Hamm and his wife, which would have kept the donations within legal limits.

In 2011, Harold and Sue Ann Hamm also jointly gave $20 million to a diabetes center at the University of Oklahoma named for Harold Hamm, who has Type II diabetes. The same year, the couple signed up for Warren Buffett and Bill Gates’ Giving Pledge initiative, indicating their intention to dedicate most of their wealth to philanthropy.

In a court filing two weeks ago, Sue Ann Hamm’s attorneys say the Hamms agreed “to engage in marriage counseling sessions in an effort to save their marriage” in November 2010, after Sue Ann Hamm concluded that her husband had been unfaithful.

Whether the Hamms separated in 2005 or more recently is crucial as the court determines how Harold Hamm’s assets will be divided, legal analysts said. Under Oklahoma family law, the increase in the value of an asset during marriage is considered part of the total pool of “marital property.”

“In general, if you own property prior to the marriage and you bring it to the marriage, it is separate,” said Marianne Blair, a professor of family law at the University of Tulsa. “But that separate property can increase in value. To the extent the increase was due to marital efforts or marital funds,” it can be divided by the court.

Hamm divorced his first wife, Judith Ann, in 1987, according to Oklahoma court records. A document filed by Sue Ann Hamm’s attorneys in the current case shows they received access to marital records in the prior divorce in March.

Attorneys for both Hamms will present evidence about when the couple separated and the resulting “date of valuation of (the) business” on May 20, according to the court docket.

What’s decided could help determine whether their divorce settlement rivals the largest reported divorce settlement to date – the $1.7 billion paid by Murdoch to his ex-wife Anna in 1999. That settlement, in California, directly affected shareholders of News Corp. because it awarded Murdoch’s three eldest children stakes in the voting shares of the company. Reports of the Murdoch divorce sent News Corp. shares lower.

Daniel Jaffe, a family law attorney in Beverly Hills, California who represented Anna Murdoch, declined to discuss the Murdoch case. But after reviewing the court docket and document obtained by Reuters in the Hamm case, he said Sue Ann Hamm’s decades of work for Continental was unique compared with most divorce cases.

“She has a leg up because she worked for the company and she can claim that a portion of her efforts went into making the company what it is today,” Jaffe said. “She was married to him when the value of the company went up. She has got to be looking for a couple of billion dollars.”

(Reporting by Brian Grow in Atlanta and Joshua Schneyer in New York; additional reporting by Jeanine Prezioso; editing by Blake Morrison and Michael Williams.)

The Federal Reserve wrapped up a two-day meeting on
Wednesday by pressing forward with its aggressive efforts to
stimulate the U.S. economy, saying it would take into account
risks posed by its policies but also how much progress it was
making lowering unemployment.

Cyprus was seeking a new loan from Russia to avert a
financial meltdown, after the island’s parliament rejected the
terms of a European Union bailout, raising the risk of default
and a bank crash.

Brent crude for May rose $1.27 to settle at $108.72
a barrel. It had dropped nearly 2 percent to a three-month low
on Tuesday. U.S. crude for April rose 80 cents to $92.96
per barrel.

“Clearly, market players anticipate that an alternative
solution will be found for Cyprus,” said Carsten Fritsch,
analyst at Commerzbank. “Nonetheless, the uncertainty
surrounding this issue is likely to continue to keep oil prices
in check in the short run.”

Oil prices also rose on Wednesday in the hours after the
U.S. Energy Information Administration said crude stocks fell by
1.3 million barrels last week, rather than the 2.0
million-barrel increase analysts had expected. The report showed
a drop in U.S. crude imports.

“We saw a drawdown in crude, which was a little surprise and
would be supportive (for oil prices),” said Phil Flynn, analyst
at Price Futures Group in Chicago.

The EIA report also showed declines in U.S. gasoline and
distillate fuel stocks, although these were smaller than
analysts expected.

On the price charts, Brent faces its first upward resistance
point at $108.50, said Olivier Jakob, oil analyst at
Petromatrix. Support levels to watch on Wednesday are $107.50
and then 107.00, he said.

The uncertainty about Cyprus’s finances has revived concern
about the stability of the euro zone and of the downside risks
to global economic growth.

The U.S. dollar weakened by 0.3 percent on Wednesday against
a basket of foreign currencies. A weaker dollar tends to
support the price of oil and other dollar-denominated
commodities.

Cyprus’s parliament appeared likely to reject a divisive tax
on bank deposits, pushing the island closer to a debt default
and banking collapse. A vote was scheduled for 12 p.m. EDT (1600
GMT), but it had earlier been postponed twice. A German official
said it was unclear when results would come.

The tax proposal, announced over the weekend as part of an
economic bailout, has renewed investor concern about the euro
zone, causing the euro, stock markets and oil prices to fall
this week.

“The situation in Cyprus, although small, goes to show that
the problems in the EU are far from over and it will exacerbate
the declining demand within EU, keeping a lid on oil prices if
not pushing them down,” said Natixis analyst Abhishek Deshpande
in London.

Brent crude for May delivery was down $1.40 a barrel
at $108.10 by 12:31 pm EDT (1600 GMT), holding above the
three-month low of $107.78 it hit on Monday.

U.S. crude for April was down 82 cents at $92.92 a
barrel.

That brought the spread between the two leading global oil
benchmarks, Brent and West Texas Intermediate, to $14.67 during
Tuesday trading, the narrowest since mid-January CL-LCO1=R.

The U.S. dollar firmed by 0.3 percent against a basket of
foreign currencies. A stronger greenback can help to
weaken oil since the dollar-denominated commodity becomes more
costly for holders of other currencies.

The result of the vote in Cyprus could also affect oil if it
causes a swing in exchange rates, said Tony Machacek, an oil
futures broker at Jefferies Bache in London.

“If the euro makes a dramatic move, it will influence oil,”
he said.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

For a 24-hr Brent chart analysis:

link.reuters.com/tak76t

For a 24-hr chart analysis on oil:

link.reuters.com/vak76t

Thomson Reuters Global Markets Forum:

here

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>

Iran continues to present an element of risk that could cap
losses in oil markets regardless of the outcome of the vote in
Cyprus, said Thorbjoern Bak Jensen of Global Risk Management.

Europe and the United States last year imposed tough new
sanctions aimed at Iran’s oil trade to force Tehran to the
negotiating table over its nuclear programme.

Insurers have refused to cover Indian refineries that
process Iranian crude imports, which may halt
deliveries.

But China’s biggest refiner said on Tuesday it did not
expect to have any insurance problems and planned to use more
Iranian oil in 2013.

Investors looked ahead to the weekly release of U.S. oil
inventories data on Wednesday. A further fall in crude stocks at
oil futures delivery hub Cushing, Oklahoma, could strengthen
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) prices against Brent.

Analysts polled by Reuters expected the data to show U.S.
crude inventories rose by 2 million barrels last week on lower
refinery utilization, while gasoline stocks were seen falling by
2.5 million barrels.

(Additional reporting By Dasha Afanasieva and Jessica Donati in
London and Florence Tan in Singapore.; Editing by William Hardy,
Jason Neely and Bob Burgdorfer)

A proposal for debt-laden Cyprus to tax depositors as part
of a bailout plan for the country sparked fears of a run on some
banks in the region. Concern over fallout helped weaken the euro
and other riskier assets such as Asian shares and base metals.

The U.S. dollar gained 0.4 percent against a basket of
foreign currencies. A firming dollar can weaken oil
prices, making them more expensive for holders of other
currencies.

However, recently positive economic data from the world’s
top oil consumer the United States and worries over supply
disruption helped stem larger losses in Brent. U.S. crude
futures turned positive in afternoon trading.

Brent futures fell 47 cents to $109.35 per barrel by
1:38 p.m. in New York (1738 GMT), after dipping below $108 a
barrel earlier in the day. U.S. oil reversed earlier
losses to trade up 3 cents a barrel at $93.48.

“The bailout conditions for Cyprus, specifically the
unprecedented removal of funds from depositors’ accounts, is
sending share and commodity prices lower,” said Tamas Varga, oil
analyst at oil brokers PVM Oil Associates in London.

“This step is causing shivers throughout the financial
world, and it has created the fear that a reaction in other
peripheral eurozone countries could hit the whole banking sector
in Europe,” Varga added.

Oil markets will remain volatile for the next few days as
investors watch for any spillover of the developments in Cyprus
to other EU nations, analysts said.

Cypriot ministers were trying on Monday to revise a plan to
seize money from bank deposits before a parliamentary vote on
Tuesday that will secure the island’s financial rescue or could
lead to its default, with reverberations across the euro zone.

RISK-OFF

The uncertainty surrounding the proposed bailout drove
investors to the safety of gold, which rose above $1,600
an ounce for the first time in more than two weeks.

Technical signals are mixed for Brent as it is not clear
that a rebound from the March 13 low has completed, Reuters
technical analyst Wang Tao said. U.S. oil may drop to $91 as it
failed to break resistance at $93.72 for the second time.

Further losses in oil were capped by expectations of a
steady revival in demand growth from the United States, and
comments from Saudi Arabia’s top energy official that oil prices
near current levels won’t hurt the economy.

Almost all U.S. states began 2013 with lower unemployment
rates than they had at the start of 2012, according to Labor
Department data.

Current oil prices will have no impact on growth in Asia,
the oil minister for top exporter Saudi Arabia, Ali al-Naimi,
said in Hong Kong. The region’s biggest economies, including
China, have struggled with rising energy costs in their efforts
to boost growth.

Worries of an escalation in a standoff between the West and
Iran over Tehran’s disputed nuclear programme could also help
ensure prices do not fall much further. Concerns of supply
disruption from the Middle East have kept Brent above $100 a
barrel through most of 2012 and this year.

(Additional reporting by Christopher Johnson in London and
Osamu Tsukimori in Tokyo; Editing by Marguerita Choy)