[quote=@BingTheWing]
<Snipped quote by Rai>

I was considering a confederacy of ultracapitalist oil barons in the Dakotas - would that be too similar to your idea?
[/quote]

I don't think there's much oil in the Dakotas. Just natural gas.

Though this brings up something very worth considering: how necessarily would any faction in this RP be able to conduct such industrial operations as they would have prior?

Generally speaking, to have investment - material and financial - to carry stuff out like this you would need backing from hedge funds or some shit or other groups who would expect eventual returns on their investment. And the chance of getting any sort of return and the costs of operation in an unstable nation would drive up the costs and thereby lowering the profits. Actual civic or industrial investment from anyone not a charitable organization from outside would would be very small or entirely non-existent. Material support would most likely stem from outside countries looking to bolster the military strength of preferred groups on the off-hand chance they'll seize power and play nicely with them.

In all likelihood it would be "barons" fracking in an area using resources and infrastructure available to them before civil breakdown, and holding onto what already exists because it takes a while to actually expand operations. Meanwhile the collapse of the US and the collapse of the dollar too would further destabilize any notion of financial stability outside self-sufficiency, local trade, or even the black market; I say this because buying from anyone an active political power within the United State's civil war would be comparable to buying oil from the PKK or any Kurdish group today because that's indirectly considered buying from a terrorist cell.

The rest of the world would be shifting their energy needs to sources that aren't politically volatile or are totally independent or political volatility.