“The run up in commodities over the last four years has probably had a significant effect,” Hodgson said. Much of their compensation was stock-based, and oil stocks were doing very well indeed as the price of oil soared. “In 2008 they were still riding high and that has had a significant effect on the companies’ share price.”

The top-ten earners among CEOs were:

n Stephen A. Schwartzman of Blackstone Group L.P., who brought in a cool $702,440,573. Researchers, though, pointed out that a portion of what was counted as Schwartzman’s compensation was actually the return on the investment he had in Blackstone before it went public.

n Lawrence Ellison of Oracle Corporation, the software magnate who’s perpetually on highest-paid lists came in at number two with $556,976,600.

n Ray R. Irani of Occidental Petroleum Corporation pulled in $222,639,705.

n John B. Hess of Hess Corporation made $159,566,940.

n Michael D. Watford of Ultra Petroleum Corp. made $116,929,392.

n Aubrey K. McClendon of Chesapeake Energy Corporation made $114,286,867.

n Bob R. Simpson of XTO Energy Inc. made $103,485,972.

n Mark G. Papa of EOG Resources Inc. pulled in $90,471,784.

n Eugene M. Isenberg of Nabors Industries Inc. landed $79,333,079.

n Michael S. Jeffries of Abercrombie & Fitch Co. hauled in $71,795,744.

But that wasn’t the only list the Corporate Library put together. Researchers at the independent corporate governance research and analysis firm also put together a list of five, “highest paid worst performers.”

Those CEO’s had to have made more than $30 million, have had their stock’s price and dividend performance underperform peers and the S&P 500 over five years and had to have been in place as CEOs for longer than five years.

They were:

n Michael S. Jeffries of Abercrombie & Fitch, who made $71,795,744.

n J.W. Stewart of BJ Services Company, whose total realized compensation was $34,589,671

n Brian L. Roberts of Comcast, whose total realized compensation was $40,818,563.

n John V. Faraci of International Paper, whose total realized compensation was $38,245,413.

n Eugene M. Isenberg of Nabors Industries, who made $79,333,079.