Coastal Corporation supplied marine diesel in the Caribbean, natural gas in Colorado, and heating oil in the Northeast.

Earning a degree in mechanical engineering from Texas A & M University, he gained experience in the oil business selling drill bits from the trunk of his Ford Coupe.

A 2007 Texas Monthly magazine article called Wyatt the real "JR Ewing" of the oil business, and described Oscar and his wife Lynn Sakowitz (a fixture of the Houston social fashion scene) together as "the beauty and the beast".

[4] While El Paso Energy was selling Coastal's petroleum marketing and production assets off piece-by-piece to competitors Valero Energy, Sunoco, and ConocoPhillips, Oscar Wyatt was being investigated for illegally doing business with Iraq's Saddam Hussein in violation of United Sanctions that strictly regulated Iraqi sales of crude oil.

In 2007, Oscar Wyatt pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court to illegally sending payments to Iraq under the Oil-for-Food Programme.

[5] At his sentencing hearing, Wyatt's attorney Gerald Shargel (who also defended Mafia boss John Gotti) pointed to a commission report, led by former Federal Reserve Board chairman Paul Volcker, that concluded that about half of the 4,500 companies in the Oil-for-Food Program paid a total of $1.8 billion in kickbacks and illicit surcharges to Saddam’s regime.

Prosecutors, in turn, amassed a daunting paper trail and rewarded a few former Iraqi petrocrats with help in obtaining U.S. green cards—as long as they agreed to testify against sanction breakers like Wyatt.

The Arab-dominated Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), by presenting a united front, began to win price increases.

LoVaca, Coastal's pipeline subsidiary, had signed fixed-price contracts to supply cities in south Texas with natural gas.

The spin-off, Valero Energy Corporation, formed on December 31, 1979, from LoVaca and other Coastal assets, had annual revenues of about $1 billion.

Economic recession and an oversupply of oil and natural gas, as well as conservation by consumers, led to Coastal's first loss, which amounted to $96.4 million for the year 1981.

Coastal not only survived deregulation it took full advantage of the competitive atmosphere by launching hostile takeover bids for other struggling energy companies.

Intervening companies that came to the rescue of Texas Gas Resources were forced to buy up shares held by Coastal at inflated prices.

[citation needed] In the late 1980s, Coastal took advantage of improved economic relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China.

A key to the company's successful strategy was the continued high productivity of all Coastal employees, from unskilled workers to those in management.

The venture, which would create one of the largest marketers of natural gas and electricity in North America, was named Engage Energy.

To procure funds for additional ventures, Coastal sold its Utah coal mining operations for approximately $610 million in late 1996.

In that year Coastal acquired an 11 percent interest in the 1,900 mi (3,100 km) Alliance Pipeline, designed to move natural gas from western Canada to the Chicago region.

In 1999 Coastal announced plans to develop a 700 mi (1,100 km) pipeline running from Mobile, Alabama, to Tampa Bay, Florida.

In June 1998 the company acquired additional interest in natural gas assets in Alabama, including a processing plant and a pipeline.

Although Coastal concentrated on boosting its natural gas operations, the company continued to implement its growth strategy in other divisions.

In Coastal's electric power business, the company increased its interest in a cogeneration plant in Midland, Michigan, from 10.9 to 20.4 percent in 1998.

The company acquired a 66.7 percent interest in a power plant in Bangladesh and continued work on two projects in Pakistan, which were scheduled to be operational in 1999.

In June Coastal finalized an agreement concerning the supply of crude with Norway's state oil company, Statoil Group.

The agreement was part of the United Nation's oil-for-food deal, in which the proceeds of the sales would be used to purchase food and medicine for Iraqi citizens who had suffered significantly from economic sanctions in place against Saddam Hussein since 1991.

Coastal also expanded its chemical operations with a newly established ammonia plant in Oyster Creek, Texas.

In 2003, Oscar Wyatt and other shareholders sued the El Paso Corporation for allegedly misrepresenting its intentions for Coastal assets prior to the merger in 2000.

El Paso needed the cash to repay the mounting debt it had acquired from following the same business model as Ken Lay's Enron.

In June 2003 Oscar Wyatt, along with El Paso investor Selim Zilkha, initiated a proxy fight to gain control of the El Paso Corporation and to wrestle control of the remaining assets, which included natural gas pipelines, exploration, and production assets.

Since the merging and disclosing of corporate malfeasance by El Paso management, Its stock had fallen 87% from its February 2001 high of $75 a share.