Roy M. Huffington

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Roy M. Huffington is a Texas oilman and former U.S Ambassador to Austria.

Huffington was born in 1917. He graduated from Southern Methodist University and earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in geology from Harvard. After serving as Ensign to Lt. Commander with the United States Navy from 1942-1945, he returned to Texas in 1946 and worked as a field geologist for Humble Oil, now known as Exxon, U.S.A. In 1956 he set up his own oil and gas exploration company known as Roy M. Huffington, Inc. (Huffco). Huffco grew to be a major independent international oil company active around the world. In 1966 HUFFCO signed production sharing contract with Pertamina to explore oil in Kutai Basin of Mahakam River delta East Kalimantan Indonesia. Initially the exploration object was oil but finally HUFFCO discovered a giant natural gas reserve in 1972 at Badak Field. Then HUFFCO and Pertamina initiated to build LNG plant in Bontang. First shipping was in August 1977, only 5 years after discovery.

In 1990, all properties of the company were sold to the Chinese Petroleum Corporation of Taiwan and HUFFCO became VICO.

Huffington served as Ambassador to Austria from 1990 to 1993. He returned to Houston and resumed the position of Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Roy M. Huffington, Inc., an independent international oil company.

Roy and his late wife, Phyllis Gough, had two children: Terry Dittman, whose family lives in Houston, and Michael Huffington, who was briefly a California congressman. Roy Huffington is the former father-in-law of progressive activist Arianna Huffington.