was another banner year for EOG Resources with double-digit production growth and shareholder returns that well outpaced most peer companies. Especially noteworthy is our stock price performance viewed over the last five years. Clearly, our long-term strategy is working.
    When we became an independent company in 1999, we announced our intention to concentrate on the fundamentals of the exploration and production business. Our priorities included:

• Focusing on per share results and working diligently to maintain our reputation as a rate of return driven company that creates superior shareholder value,
• Being financially conservative and managing our company with high ethical standards,
• Growing the company through the drillbit with an aggressive drilling program concentrating largely on the development of natural gas, along with select oil targets,
• Seeking higher return, tactical acquisition opportunities in areas where EOG is established, rather than pursuing big-ticket mergers and acquisitions,
• Ranking repeatedly as a low-cost industry operator,
• Continuing to explore and exploit our existing properties located in almost every major producing basin in the United States and Canada with a consistent approach,
• Adding new, big-target domestic plays to our existing program,
• Developing our offshore Trinidad properties, while at the same time seeking another new international venue that fits our strict selection criteria,
• Placing our dynamic employees in close proximity to the plays they explore and operate, and
• Attracting and retaining top technical talent, while developing and honing their skills, as we work toward being the exploration and production industry's 'employer of choice.'

Since we articulated this straightforward, flexible yet deliberate strategy, we have followed through with persistence and the result is strong performance over a chain of successful years.

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