An oil tycoon is a wealthy individual who has made their fortune in the oil industry. Two famous oil tycoons are John D. Rockefeller, known as the 'Oil BARON' and J. Paul Getty, known as the 'Oil Tycoon'. Rockefeller was an American industrialist and philanthropist who founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870 and became one of the world's wealthiest men. Getty was an American-born British industrialist, investor, and collector who founded the Getty Oil Company in 1942 and was one of the richest people in the world at the time of his death.