Oil and Gas Investor will recognize the winners of its 13th annual Excellence Awards on March 29. Continental Resources Chairman and CEO Harold Hamm will be honored as Executive of the Year. M&A Deal of the Year and Financing of the Year are also categories. Award presentations will occur throughout the program of Hart Energy’s 2016 Energy Capital Conference at the Omni Barton Creek in Austin, Texas.

“Winners represent the best of the best in the upstream industry,” said Steve Toon, Editor-in-Chief of Oil and Gas Investor. “They demonstrate the tradition of vision and professionalism that characterizes our Excellence Awards.”

The 2016 Honorees:

Executive of the Year: Continental Resources Inc., Chairman and CEO, Harold Hamm. Under Hamm’s leadership, the Oklahoma company has grown oil reserves significantly in the Bakken Shale. Continental Resources opened up two new Midcontinent plays, the Scoop and Stack. Hamm also has been a tireless supporter of lifting the oil export ban. He has met personally with more than 250 people on Capitol Hill and frequently appeared as a spokesperson in the media.

M&A Deal of the Year: WPX Energy’s acquisition of RKI Exploration & Production LLC. This $2.75 billion deal marks formerly natural-gas weighted WPX’s transformation. The deal allowed entry to a new core area of the Permian Basin. It meaningfully increased the company’s oil production and reserves and provides significant upside for further drilling. RKI is recognized for identifying and developing a strong oil asset that received top value as well as identifying a key moment in time to put the deal in motion.

Financing of the Year: Blue Whale Energy North America. The new company’s $1.4 billion acquisition of Permian Basin assets from two private E&P companies was funded by Beijing-based Phoenix Tree Capital. This represents new Chinese private equity money coming into the U.S. A&D market in a volatile time, via a complicated structure, with potentially more deals to come.

In addition to these prestigious honors, Energy Capital Conference attendees will also hear presentations from more than a dozen C-suite executives and energy industry experts.

As commodity prices hit a multi-year low, financing becomes ever more challenging. The Energy Capital Conference will explore effective strategies for accessing and deploying capital in today’s market.

Registration is available online with an early-bird discount until March 11, 2016. To view the complete agenda, visit energycapitalconference.com.