OGFJ100P Company Update
John S. Herold Inc., the trusted independent research firm, has once again provided OGFJ with updated production data for our periodic ranking of US-based private E&P companies. Once again, these rankings are based on operated production only within the United States.
Much has changed since we published the list in our September issue. Some companies were acquired or went public and were removed from this list. Those include Breitburn (acquired by Provident Energy Trust), Chief Oil and Gas (acquired by Devon), Lance Oil and Gas (part of Western Gas Resources, acquired by Anadarko), Energy XII (went public on London AIM), and Medicine Bow (sold to El Paso).
The top-ranked companies, however, are not part of that trend. Aera Energy LLC continues to hold the lead as the No. 1-ranked company in total production (barrels of oil equivalent) for 2005.
The second-, third-, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-ranked companies - Merit Energy Co., Hilcorp Energy Co., Yates Petroleum Corp., Samson Lone Star LP, and Hunt Oil Co. still command the same top positions as the previous listing.
One change to note in the top 10 is that Walter Oil & Gas Corp. has overtaken Samson Resources Co. for the No. 7 spot. Samson Resources is now listed at No. 8.
Now for the big changes - multiple companies moved up 10 or more spots in the rankings. These companies include Millenium Offshore Gas Group (from No. 78 to No. 68), Muskegon Development Co. (from No. 101 to No. 77), Goldking Energy Corp. (from No. 85 to No. 75), and Mercury Exploration Co. Inc. who rose from No.100 in September to No. 86. The greatest jump in ranking goes to Midrock Operating Co. (from No. 127 to No. 94).
The companies taking the biggest hits in the rankings are Ward Petroleum, who fell from No. 61 to No. 82, and Wolverine Gas and Oil Corp., who fell from No. 44 to No. 90.
Most of the changes are due to the improved data set that we were provided since the last issue. Thanks to one of our readers, Herold was tipped off about some problems with the data. Those have all been corrected. Consequently, many companies fell below the production threshold of about 1.5 MMboe.
OGFJ and John S. Herold will continue to update the information as new production figures become available. Future issues of OGFJ will contain production volumes broken down into total gas production and total liquids production, as well as news and relevant information regarding individual companies.