When thinking of "Top of Class" among E&P executives, XTO Energy Inc. chairman and chief executive Bob R. Simpson comes to mind. In interviews and formal corporate presentations, the Texas native seems relaxed and in no hurry, but there must be some determination in the background for XTO to have remained among the strongest independents in the U.S. In March 2005, Barron's named Simpson one of its top 30 CEOs. He was profiled in Oil and Gas Investor as well (see "Simpson's Success," May 2005). Under his leadership, the Fort Worth company's reserves and production have grown in each of 12 straight years, and total shareholder returns since the company's 1993 initial public offering have outpaced peers: shares have risen 40-fold. In 2005, the company posted a 66.4% total return, ahead of Devon Energy Corp., EnCana Corp., Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Apache Corp., according to data from John S. Herold Inc. That was on the heels of a 56% return in 2004. All the while, XTO has not deviated from its original focus: purely domestic, unconventional and long-lived natural gas plays onshore. Simpson says he'll stick to what he calls The Big Four: tight gas, shale gas, coalbed methane and "tight" oil. These have given XTO a long reserve life, thousands of drilling locations in repeatable resource plays, and one of the lowest drillbit finding costs in the industry. Since January 2002 the company has acquired more than $4.3 billion of such reserves-some 1.3 trillion cubic feet equivalent (Tcfe) from the majors alone. It ended 2005 with about 7.5 Tcfe of reserves versus 5.9 Tcfe the year before, and at press time, it made another acquisition in its core East Texas area, for $300 million. "If you believe in $9 gas, paying $3 is not crazy. And we have so much inventory here, we can be patient," Simpson says. For more on this, see the March issue of Oil and Gas Investor. For a subscription, call 713-993-9325, ext. 129.