Revenue rises 23% from 3Q10, income up 41% over same period

The number of reporting companies declined from 132 in the third quarter to 117 in the fourth quarter of 2011. For these companies, total revenue was $301 billion, down $17.1 billion from the prior quarter, but up $30.3 billion year over year.

Net income for the group decreased by $9 billion from the third to the fourth quarter. However, it grew by $677 million compared to the same quarter in 2010.

Year-to-date capital spending stood at $179 billion at the end of the fourth quarter, up $50.8 billion from the previous quarter. Compared to the same quarter last year, spending was up by more than $41.3 billion, a 30% increase.

Total asset value for the combined OGJ150 group of companies grew to $1.3 trillion from $1.29 trillion - about a 1% increase - from the previous quarter. Assets were up by $108.2 billion (about 9%) year over year.

Stockholder equity for the entire group rose just 1% to $630.2 billion in the fourth quarter, an increase of $1.1 billion over the third quarter. This figure grew by approximately $53.7 billion from the same quarter in 2010, representing growth of about 10%.

Largest in net income

The 20 largest companies ranked according to net income had $24.3 billion in collective net income for the fourth quarter of 2011. This compares with $30.9 billion for the previous quarter, a precipitous drop of 22% for the group. However, net income grew by $2.4 billion from the same quarter in 2010, a 12% increase.

The $24.3 billion net income for the top 20 companies is greater than the $21.6 billion in collective net income for the entire OGJ150 group of companies because the remaining 97 companies collectively had a net loss of nearly $2.7 billion.

Of the 117 companies in the group, 54 (nearly half) showed a net loss in the income column. Among the larger losses reported: $414.7 million by Berry Petroleum; $394.4 billion by SandRidge Energy; $339 million by Anadarko Petroleum; $335 million by WPX Energy; and $296 million by Noble Energy. In general, the larger companies outperformed the smaller ones.

However, even super majors and large independents reported declines in net income over the previous quarter. ExxonMobil, Chevron, Occidental, Devon, and Chesapeake all recorded a drop in net income. Only three companies from the previous quarter's top 20 - ConocoPhillips, Apache Corp., and Marathon Oil reported gains in net income over the quarter.

Eight companies dropped from last quarter's top 20 list - No. 8 SandRidge Energy, No. 10 Noble Energy, No. 11 Continental Resources, No. 12 Murphy Oil, No. 14 Pioneer Natural Resources, No. 15 Concho Resources, No. 18 Denbury Resources, and No. 20 Hess Corp. And eight new companies joined the top 20 - No. 11 Consol Energy, No. 12 Southwestern Energy, No. 13 Ultra Petroleum, No. 15 Cimarex Energy, No. 16 EQT Production, No. 17 Plains Exploration & Production, No. 18 Callon Petroleum, and No. 20 Whiting Petroleum.

ExxonMobil's net income of a little more than $9.7 billion amounted to approximately 45% of the total net income for the OGJ150 group of companies. The top three companies in net income - ExxonMobil, Chevron, and ConocoPhillips - together accounted for nearly $18.3 billion in net income, or 85% of net income for the entire group.

Largest in total revenue

The list of the top 20 companies in total revenue generally doesn't change much from quarter to quarter. Together, these companies accounted for a bit more than $291.1 billion in revenue compared to slightly more than $301 billion for the entire OGJ150 group. That's roughly 96% for the 20 largest and 4% for the rest.

Interestingly, only five of the 20 leading companies in total revenue reported increases over the previous quarter. Those five are Hess Corp. ($9.7 billion in revenue); Anadarko ($3.5 billion); Noble Energy ($985 million), QEP Resources ($853 million), and Newfield ($677 million). The other 15 companies on the list reported declines in total revenue from the prior quarter.

This quarter the only company to drop out of the top 20 in revenue is Continental Resources. The company was replaced on the list by Newfield Exploration, which debuted in the No. 20 position.

Top spenders

Spending by the top 20 companies in the fourth quarter continued to surge. It was up 39% in the fourth quarter and grew by 24% from the same quarter in 2010. The top 10 spenders were, in order: ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Occidental, Apache, Anadarko, Chesapeake, Devon, Hess, and Marathon Oil. The top 20 companies in spending accounted for 81% of the total spending for the entire OGJ150 group.

Fastest-growing companies

Ranked according to stockholders' equity, the three fastest-growing companies were PostRock Energy Corp. (up 32,441.7%); Callon Petroleum (up 46.8%); and Gulfport Energy Corp. (up 32.4%).

Oklahoma City-based PostRock operates mainly in the Cherokee Basin of Kansas and Oklahoma. The company owns and operates over 2,800 wells and nearly 2,200 miles of gas gathering lines in the basin. In addition, it owns 1,100 miles of interstate gas pipelines in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri.

Based in Natchez, Miss., Callon Petroleum says its principal development operations are in the Permian Basin of West Texas and the Haynesville Shale in northern Louisiana. Callon's producing assets in the Gulf of Mexico provide significant cash flow to execute the company's onshore development operations.

From its headquarters in Oklahoma City, Gulfport Energy executives direct operations in the Permian Basin, southern Louisiana, the Niobrara and Utica shale plays, the Canadian oil sands, and in Thailand.

Click here to download the pdf of the OGJ150 Quarterly 'Quarter ending Dec.31 2011'