GENERAL INTEREST
Net income for the OGJ150 group plummeted 17.48% in
2014 to $73.98 billion. This was the worst performance
in dollar terms for annual profits for the OGJ group since
2010.
This year’s financial results illustrate the substantial oil
price decline that took place during second-half 2014 as well
as significant impairments and charges incurred during the
year. The results were partly mitigated by increased
production and higher natural gas prices.
As capital spending and drilling efforts of the
OGJ150 companies continued to increase last year,
the group’s oil and gas production and reserves,
particularly in the US, showed robust growth.
To qualify for the OGJ150, oil and gas producers must be headquartered in the US, publicly traded, and hold oil or gas reserves in the US.
Companies appear on the list ranked by total assets but are also ranked by revenues, stockholders’ equity, capital expenditures, earnings, production, reserves, and US net wells drilled. In this year’s report, the
spin-off of California Resources Corp. from Occidental
Petroleum Corp. impairs year-over-year comparability of
some top 20 lists.
There are 143 companies that qualified for this edition
of the OGJ150. Last year’s group contained 139 firms. As
always, data for this year’s list reflect the prior year’s operations.
Prices, refining margins
For the full-year 2014, West Texas Intermediate and Brent
prices averaged $93.26/bbl and $99.02/bbl, respectively,
compared with $97.90/bbl and $108.64/bbl in 2013. During second-half 2014, the average WTI and Brent prices fell to $88.37/bbl and $92.35/bbl, respectively, from
$100.76/bbl and $108.77/bbl in the same period in 2013.
The drop in crude oil prices was mainly due to
weakening global demand combined with robust
supply from rising US production, decreasing supply disruptions, and members of the Organization
of Petroleum Exporting Countries maintaining
production levels.
Front-month gas futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange averaged $4.26/MMbtu in 2014
compared with $3.73/MMbtu in 2013.
Full-year 2014 refining cash margins averaged
$19.43/bbl for Midwest refiners, $15.04/bbl for the
West Coast, $8.50/bbl for the Gulf Coast, and $3.99/bbl
for the East Coast, according to Muse, Stancil & Co. During 2013, these averaged refining margins were $24.96/bbl,
$15.85/bbl, $7.42/bbl, and $2.22/bbl, respectively. Refining
margins in northwestern Europe and Southeast Asia in 2014
averaged $3.05/bbl and $2.17/bbl, respectively, compared
with $3.15/bbl and $1.97/bbl a year ago.
Conglin Xu
Senior Editor-Economics
Laura Bell
Statistics Editor
OGJ150 scores higher
production, lower earnings
SPECIAL
REPORT
SOME KEY CHANGES FROM 2014 OGJ150 Table 1
How company appeared How company appears
on last year’s list Why change? on this year’s list
ForestOilCorp. ................ Merged with................... SabineOil&GasCorp.
Freeport McMoRan
Copper & Gold Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Changed name to . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Freeport-McMoRan Inc.
Pyramid Oil Co. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Merged with and into . . . . . . . . . . . . Yuma Energy Inc.
The following companies sold their US producing properties, liquidated, or became private since the last survey:
GeoMet Inc.
High Mount Exploration & Production LLC
Historical spreadsheets of data
presented here are available
for purchase from PennEnergy
Research Center. Visit www.
ogjonline.com, and click the
link “Energy Industry Surveys
in Excel” under the “Industry
Surveys” section.
