What makes a winner? Last year, high oil and gas prices lifted many companies and executives to higher plains of achievement, making for many happy shareholders. But the editors of Oil and Gas Investor looked for more creative or bold decisions from the executive suite when choosing the winners of our second annual Excellence Awards. These companies and individuals represent the best in our industry for 2004. In the pages that follow, you can learn how they flexed their muscles to create better strategy, rapid growth through mergers and acquisitions, field rejuvenation, innovative financing, sound investor relations and corporate citizenship. First, we're delighted to recognize James C. Flores as Executive of the Year. He successfully rose up to lead not one, but two companies through dramatic changes in 2004 that delivered value to shareholders. Flores doubled the size of Plains E&P through its merger with Nuevo Energy, and took midstream Plains Resources private, introducing a new source of capital to the oil patch as a result. In M&A Deal of the Year, relatively young Petrohawk Energy Corp. vaulted ahead by bulking up seven-fold with its purchase of bigger-fish Wynn-Crosby Energy Inc. in our M&A Deal of the Year. The Best Investor-Relations Program winner is that of Southwestern Energy Co., which analysts praise as consistently being forthcoming with much-needed and clear information. The company has grown its investor base in the process. Meanwhile, Delta Petroleum Corp. and its investment bankers, led by Sterne, Agee & Leach Inc., closed several key PIPE deals last year to quickly add the financial firepower Delta needed to grow. They win Financing of the Year. Winning for Best Field Rejuvenation is Continental Resources Inc. for its activity at the Cedar Hills Anticline in the Williston Basin. The Oklahoma-based independent tapped new reserves through its secondary-recovery operations there, trying different techniques than others in the area. Many companies undertake community-relations efforts here and there as needed, but Devon Energy Corp. wins the Best Corporate Citizen award for its systematic, sophisticated and extensive programs that have now expanded to 14 operating areas from Montana to Texas and Louisiana to West Africa. What you will not see in the following pages is our winner for Best Discovery. We agreed with the company's CEO to tight-hole that particular story until the April issue-a classic exploration tactic. We believe you'll find the winning well a refreshing example of old-fashioned, North American wildcatting that transforms the way the industry reads regional geology. So much for the school of thought that there just aren't any big discoveries left to make onshore the Lower 48! We look forward to sharing this exciting story with you. We'd like to thank Oil and Gas Investor's readers who sent us nominations and suggestions. We encourage you do so again this coming October, when the nomination process kicks off again for our 2005 round of winners. By bringing these standouts to our attention, you help us bring them to the attention of more than 20,000 E&P and financial executives. We look forward to bringing you many more success stories.

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