No one is more aware of skyrocketing oil prices than John B. Hess, chairman and CEO of the Hess Corporation. In the last three weeks, Hess has sold almost $115 million in Hess company stock. Most of stock was held personally; about $23 million was in a charitable trust he controls.

Lev Leviev is perhaps best known as the man who defied De Beers, the mighty cartel that controlled the flow of the world’s supply of rough diamonds.

By doing so, Leviev has become one of the world’s richest men. Close friends claim he’s worth about $8 billion, but Forbes lists him at a conservative $4.1 billion.

And of course, immense wealth almost always makes access easier to the halls of political power. Among his circle of friends are the heads of state of the splintered republics of the former Soviet Union and the African nations of Angola and Namibia.