1. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Accounting policies used by Devon Energy Corporation and subsidiaries ("Devon") reflect industry practices and conform to accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. The more significant of such policies are briefly discussed below.

Nature of Business and Principles of Consolidation

Devon is engaged primarily in oil and gas exploration, development and production, and the acquisition of properties. Such activities in the United States are concentrated in the following geographic areas:

Devon's Canadian operations are located primarily in the provinces of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. Devon's international operations — outside of North America — are located primarily in Azerbaijan, Brazil and China. In October 2007, Devon sold its assets and terminated its operations in Egypt. In January 2007, Devon announced its plans to divest its assets and terminate its operations in West Africa. These divestiture activities are described more fully in Note 13.

Devon also has marketing and midstream operations that perform various activities to support the oil and gas operations of Devon as well as unrelated third parties. Such activities include marketing natural gas, crude oil and NGLs, as well as constructing and operating pipelines, storage and treating facilities and gas processing plants.

The accounts of Devon's controlled subsidiaries are included in the accompanying consolidated financial statements. All significant intercompany accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.

Use of Estimates in the Preparation of Financial Statements

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements, and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual amounts could differ from these estimates, and changes in these estimates are recorded when known. Significant items subject to such estimates and assumptions include the following:

Property and Equipment

Devon follows the full cost method of accounting for its oil and gas properties. Accordingly, all costs incidental to the acquisition, exploration and development of oil and gas properties, including costs of undeveloped leasehold, dry holes and leasehold equipment, are capitalized. Internal costs incurred that are directly identified with acquisition, exploration and development activities undertaken by Devon for its own account, and that are not related to production, general corporate overhead or similar activities, are also capitalized. Interest costs incurred and attributable to unproved oil and gas properties under current evaluation and major development projects of oil and gas properties are also capitalized. All costs related to production activities, including workover costs incurred solely to maintain or increase levels of production from an existing completion interval, are charged to expense as incurred.

Under the full cost method of accounting, the net book value of oil and gas properties, less related deferred income taxes, may not exceed a calculated "ceiling." The ceiling limitation is the estimated after-tax future net revenues, discounted at 10% per annum, from proved oil, natural gas and NGL reserves plus the cost of properties not subject to amortization. Estimated future net revenues exclude future cash outflows associated with settling asset retirement obligations included in the net book value of oil and gas properties. Such limitations are imposed separately on a country-by-country basis and are tested quarterly. In calculating future net revenues, prices and costs used are those as of the end of the appropriate quarterly period. These prices are not changed except where different prices are fixed and determinable from applicable contracts for the remaining term of those contracts, including derivative contracts in place that qualify for hedge accounting treatment. None of Devon's outstanding derivative contracts at December 31, 2007 or December 31, 2006 qualified for hedge accounting treatment.

Any excess of the net book value, less related deferred taxes, over the ceiling is written off as an expense. An expense recorded in one period may not be reversed in a subsequent period even though higher oil and gas prices may have increased the ceiling applicable to the subsequent period.

Capitalized costs are depleted by an equivalent unit-of-production method, converting gas to oil at the ratio of six thousand cubic feet of natural gas to one barrel of oil. Depletion is calculated using the capitalized costs, including estimated asset retirement costs, plus the estimated future expenditures (based on current costs) to be incurred in developing proved reserves, net of estimated salvage values.

Unproved properties are excluded from amortized capitalized costs until it is determined whether or not proved reserves can be assigned to such properties. Devon assesses its unproved properties for impairment quarterly. Significant unproved properties are assessed individually. Costs of insignificant unproved properties are transferred to amortizable costs over average holding periods ranging from three years for onshore properties to seven years for offshore properties.

No gain or loss is recognized upon disposal of oil and gas properties unless such disposal significantly alters the relationship between capitalized costs and proved reserves in a particular country.

Depreciation of midstream pipelines are provided on a units-of-production basis. Depreciation and amortization of other property and equipment, including corporate and other midstream assets and leasehold improvements, are provided using the straight-line method based on estimated useful lives ranging from three to 39 years.

Devon recognizes liabilities for retirement obligations associated with tangible long-lived assets, such as producing well sites, offshore production platforms, and midstream pipelines and processing plants when there is a legal obligation associated with the retirement of such assets and the amount can be reasonably estimated. The initial measurement of an asset retirement obligation is recorded as a liability at its fair value, with an offsetting asset retirement cost recorded as an increase to the associated property and equipment on the consolidated balance sheet. If the fair value of a recorded asset retirement obligation changes, a revision is recorded to both the asset retirement obligation and the asset retirement cost. The asset retirement cost is depreciated using a systematic and rational method similar to that used for the associated property and equipment.

Short-Term Investments and Other Marketable Securities

Devon reports its short-term investments and other marketable securities at fair value, except for debt securities in which management has the ability and intent to hold until maturity. At December 31, 2007 and 2006, Devon's short-term investments consisted of $372 million and $574 million, respectively, of auction rate securities classified as available for sale. Although Devon's auction rate securities generally have contractual maturities of more than 20 years, the underlying interest rates on such securities are scheduled to reset every 28 days. Therefore, these auction rate securities are generally priced and subsequently trade as short-term investments because of the interest rate reset feature. As a result, Devon has classified its auction rate securities as short-term investments in the accompanying consolidated balance sheet.

Devon owns approximately 14.2 million shares of Chevron Corporation ("Chevron") common stock. The majority of these shares are held in connection with debt owed by Devon that contains an exchange option. This exchange option allows the debt holders, prior to the debt's maturity of August 15, 2008, to exchange the debt for the shares of Chevron common stock owned by Devon. However, Devon has the option to settle any exchanges with cash equal to the market value of Chevron common stock at the time of the exchange. As described more fully in Note 4, Devon has paid the cash equivalent of the Chevron common stock to settle all exchange requests through December 31, 2007.

The shares of Chevron common stock and the exchange option embedded in the debt have always been recorded on Devon's balance sheet at fair value. However, pursuant to accounting rules prior to January 1, 2007, only the change in fair value of the embedded option had historically been included in Devon's results of operations. Conversely, the change in fair value of the Chevron common stock had not been included in Devon's results of operations, but instead had been recorded directly to stockholders' equity as part of "accumulated other comprehensive income."

Effective January 1, 2007, Devon adopted Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 159, The Fair Value Option for Financial Assets and Financial Liabilities — Including an Amendment of FASB Statement No. 115. Statement No. 159 allows a company the option to value its financial assets and liabilities, on an instrument by instrument basis, at fair value, and include the change in fair value of such assets and liabilities in its results of operations. Devon chose to apply the provisions of Statement No. 159 to its shares of Chevron common stock. Accordingly, beginning with the first quarter of 2007, the change in fair value of the Chevron common stock owned by Devon, along with the change in fair value of the related exchange option, are both included in Devon's results of operations.

For the year ended December 31, 2007, the change in fair value of financial instruments caption on Devon's statement of operations includes an unrealized gain of $281 million related to the Chevron common stock and an unrealized loss of $248 million related to the embedded option. For the years ended December 31, 2006 and 2005, prior to adopting Statement No. 159, unrealized losses of $181 million and $54 million, respectively, related to the change in fair value of the embedded option were included in the change in fair value of financial instruments caption on Devon's statements of operations.

As of December 31, 2006, $364 million of after-tax unrealized gains related to Devon's investment in the Chevron common stock was included in accumulated other comprehensive income. This is the amount of unrealized gains that, prior to Devon's adoption of Statement No. 159, had not been recorded in Devon's historical results of operations. Upon the adoption of Statement No. 159 as of January 1, 2007, this $364 million of unrealized gains was reclassified on Devon's balance sheet from accumulated other comprehensive income to retained earnings.

In conjunction with the adoption of Statement No. 159, Devon also adopted on January 1, 2007 Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 157, Fair Value Measurements. Statement No. 157 provides a common definition of fair value, establishes a framework for measuring fair value and expands disclosures about fair value measurements, but does not require any new fair value measurements. The adoption of Statement No. 157 had no impact on Devon's financial statements, but the adoption did result in additional required disclosures as set forth in Note 5.

Goodwill

Goodwill represents the excess of the purchase price of business combinations over the fair value of the net assets acquired and is tested for impairment at least annually. The impairment test requires allocating goodwill and all other assets and liabilities to assigned reporting units. The fair value of each reporting unit is estimated and compared to the net book value of the reporting unit. If the estimated fair value of the reporting unit is less than the net book value, including goodwill, then the goodwill is written down to the implied fair value of the goodwill through a charge to expense. Because quoted market prices are not available for Devon's reporting units, the fair values of the reporting units are estimated based upon several valuation analyses, including comparable companies, comparable transactions and premiums paid. Devon performed annual impairment tests of goodwill in the fourth quarters of 2007, 2006 and 2005. Based on these assessments, no impairment of goodwill was required.

The table below provides a summary of Devon's goodwill, by assigned reporting unit, as of December 31, 2007 and 2006. The increase in goodwill from 2006 to 2007 is largely due to changes in the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the Canadian dollar.

  December 31,
  2007 2006
  (In millions)
United States $ 3,050     3,053  
Canada   3,054     2,585  
International   68     68  
   Total $ 6,172     5,706  

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