Since 2004, the editors of Oil and Gas Investor have been pleased to receive your nominations for our annual Excellence Awards, honoring companies, deals and the individuals behind them. Originally presented each year at Nape Expo, today they are given at our annual Energy Capital Conference held each June. To be sure, 2010 was another remarkable year, as production from the shale plays continued to surge and attract investor attention from abroad. Once again, U.S. oil production rose, led by the Bakken play and the ongoing revival of many other onshore oil plays. Here, we honor our winners for activity in 2010.

First, we are pleased to honor as Executive of the Year, long time Appalachian Basin entrepreneur Edward E. Cohen, president and chief executive of Atlas Energy LP. Under his leadership, Philadelphia-based Atlas consolidated its midstream and upstream MLPs to streamline the company. Next, it formed a joint venture in the Marcellus shale with India's Reliance Industries Ltd. Then in November 2010, it sold most of the shale assets to Chevron for a total consideration of $4.3 billion. Now, Cohen is rebooting Atlas' remaining midstream and Appalachian E&P assets.

Best Discovery of the Year goes to Noble Energy Inc., Houston, for its Leviathan natural gas discovery offshore Israel—the world's largest deepwater gas discovery of the past decade, with an estimated 16 trillion cubic feet of resource. This find could make Israel energy independent, and it offers gas exporting possibilities as well. The well encountered 220 feet of high-quality net gas pay.

Best Financing of the Year is awarded to Energy Corp. of America for its Marcellus Royalty Trust I, now traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Denver-based CEO John Mork, aided by Raymond James & Associates, completed an initial public offering with total gross proceeds of $176 million in June 2010. This new royalty trust consists of horizontal Marcellus wells and locations, all in Pennsylvania. The shale-trust model has since been repeated by another firm and more such vehicles are to come. These trusts provide yield income.

Serial dealmaker Chesapeake Energy Corp., and its new partner CNOOC Ltd., receive the M&A Deal of the Year Award. They inked a joint venture that brought the Chinese multinational onshore the U.S. for the first time, for consideration of $2.16 billion in cash and drilling carries, in the Eagle Ford shale of South Texas. The pair has since signed another JV, in the Niobrara.

Turnaround of the Year goes to Oklahoma City's Chaparral Energy Inc. President and CEO Mark Fischer directed the transformation in 2010 and early 2011, going from a high-debt, low-liquidity company seeking a merger partner, to a stable, oil-focused one with unconventional and EOR potential. He did so through a series of deals, including a $345-million, private-equity investment by CCMP Capital, a bond issue and refinancing transactions.

The Best Corporate Citizen winner is Pioneer Natural Resources Corp. for its work in the Raton Basin, where it operates 2,300 coalbed-methane wells in the Purgatoire River Basin watershed. It is funding a regional watershed monitoring system. In January 2010, it was joined by two other CBM operators to fund Tetra Tech Inc., an environmental engineering consulting firm, to implement a cutting-edge monitoring program in the Purgatoire area. It collects and evaluates surface water quality.

Best Field Rejuvenation could likely be given to every play in the onshore U.S. today. But for 2010, the award goes to Concho Resources Inc. in Midland, for its leading work in the oil and wet-gas-prone Bone Spring play in the Delaware Basin. Modern horizontal drilling and completion methods borrowed from shales have turned this traditional vertical-well play into the next big thing.

Linn Energy LP's vice president of investor relations, Clay Jeansonne, garners recognition this year for Best IR program. Buyside and sellside analysts praise his industry savvy, receptivity and rapid response to their inquiries. Several mentioned his targeted outreach to the retail investors who make up 75% of Linn's investor base, making sure senior management meets with them.