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.