Oil and Gas Investor magazine will recognize the winners of its 14th annual Excellence Awards on April 18, 2017, at Hart Energy’s 10th annual Energy Capital Conference at the Omni Barton Creek in Austin, TX.


“This year’s honorees are leading the upstream industry with innovative financial plans and impactful A&D dealmaking. From redesigning financial structures to pioneering forward-thinking acquisitions, these winners represent the full spectrum of oil and gas financing,” said Steve Toon, Oil and Gas Investor Editor-in-Chief. “They are a leading example of the tradition of vision and professionalism that characterizes our Excellence Awards.” Oil and Gas Investor editors reviewed readers’ nominations to select the best companies, deals and individuals.


The 2017 Honorees: Executive of the Year: Richard (Rick) Muncrief stepped into the CEO role of WPX Energy Inc. in May 2014. At the time, WPX Energy was experiencing high costs and low margins shortly after being spun out of its pipeline parent, and in two and a half years and $6.5 billion in A&D later, Muncrief completely retooled the portfolio and cost structure of the company to become one of the leading performers in its class, with ample room to grow.


M&A Deal of the Year: The M&A Deal of the Year goes to RSP Permian Inc. for its transformative $2.4 billion acquisition of Silver Hill Energy Partners LLC, and to Silver Hill for the value it created in a short time in a difficult market. The deal gives RSP a new focus in the thickest part of Texas’ Delaware Basin, enabling significant production growth ahead. Silver Hill developed the acreage with a sale in mind after pulling it off the market a year previous and will still enjoy the value creation as it took about half the deal value in RSP stock, which indicates confidence in the quality of the assets and the capabilities of the buyer to fully develop them.


Financing of the Year: Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and J.P. Morgan are joint recipients of the Financing of the Year award for Anadarko’s acquisition of strategic deepwater Gulf of Mexico assets funded through J.P. Morgan’s execution of a $2.16 billion overnight equity offering, the largest sole underwritten primary block trade by an E&P. The acquired assets generate substantial free cash flow, allowing Anadarko to accelerate activity in its onshore Delaware and Denver-Julesburg basins, while also adding to the company’s deep inventory of tieback opportunities in the GOM. Despite a downdraft in the Dow, J.P. Morgan priced the 40.54 million share offering tighter than average large block trades, leaving Anadarko’s stock little changed from pre-offering levels in subsequent days.