We are pleased to present a copy of our 2024 / 2025 Energy Compensation Report. This report analyzes compensation arrangements for executives and boards of directors at the largest U.S. exploration & production (E&P), oilfield services (OFS), and clean energy companies. 

Please click below to explore the findings of the 2024 / 2025 Energy Compensation Report in our interactive page and download the full report:

Key findings include:

• After a wave of bankruptcies in the industry in 2020 and mounting political pressure, companies shifted their focus from solely on production and revenue generation to a more holistic approach emphasizing capital discipline and environmental responsibility. This led boards to prioritize Health / Safety / Environmental and Cash Flow metrics over traditional Production / Production Growth metrics for executives. However, the decline in these metrics in recent years may indicate companies are taking a more balanced approach.
• Time-vesting restricted stock / restricted stock units and performance-vesting awards are the most common forms of long-term incentive compensation, utilized by at least 95 percent of E&P and OFS companies. For performance-vesting awards, health, safety, and environmental metrics are the most common performance metrics, used by 85 percent of E&P and OFS companies.
• In the context of a change in control, the most common cash severance multiple for CEOs is equal to 3x of compensation (applicable to 63 percent of the CEOs in this report), and the most common cash severance multiples for CFOs are between 2.00x to 2.99x of compensation (applicable to 80 percent of the CFOs in this report).
• On average, incentive compensation — including annual and long-term incentives — comprises approximately 85 percent of an E&P and OFS executive's total compensation

Effective compensation programs are critical to attract, retain and drive performance of executives. Boards of directors should ensure that their executive compensation programs are aligned with market standards throughout each potential phase of a company's lifecycle, including initial public offering, transaction/merger, steady state and bankruptcy. This report includes detailed market information on executive compensation.

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