Earnings

Return to Article

EOG Resources CEO Gets $13.9M Pay Package In 2008

The Associated Press

HOUSTON (AP) — Mark Papa, chairman and chief executive of oil and gas exploration company EOG Resources Inc., saw his total compensation climb 10 percent to $13.9 million in 2008, driven mainly by stock options, according to an Associated Press calculation of figures disclosed in a regulatory filing made Wednesday.

The bump in Papa's total compensation came primarily from stock and options awards valued at $499,920, $6.6 million and $4.4 million on their grant dates of March 3, 2008, April 9, 2008 and Sept. 3, 2008, respectively. As the company's share price is much lower now, the current value of these awards has diminished.

Papa, 62, earned a salary of $940,000, flat with his 2007 salary, but saw his performance-based bonus shrink 33 percent to $1 million, from the $1.5 million earned last year.

The remainder of his 2008 pay package was $395,842 of perks, which includes $321,000 in matching contributions to Papa's savings plan and a cash perk of $28,200.

Papa, EOG's chief executive since 1998, was the company's highest paid official among the five company executives listed in the report.

The company's filing said Papa's compensation was based on individual and company performance, alignment with stockholder interests and maintaining competitiveness with peer companies.

In 2007, Papa received a pay package valued at $12.6 million.

The Associated Press formula is designed to isolate the value the company's board placed on the executive's total compensation package during the past fiscal year. It includes salary, bonus, performance-related bonuses, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year.

The calculations don't include changes in the present value of pension benefits, and they sometimes differ from the totals companies list in the summary compensation table of proxy statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which reflect the size of the accounting charge taken for the executive's compensation in the previous fiscal year.

EOG's 2008 net income more than doubled to $2.4 billion, or $9.72 per share, from $1.1 billion, or $4.37 per share in 2007.

In 2008, shares of EOG plunged over 27 percent to close the year at $66.58.