The objective of this work was to use Kohn-Sham density functional methods to compute the enthalpies of formation of O 4 , O 6 , O 8 , and O 12 . To ascertain the most effective functional combinations and basis sets for this purpose, a variety of these were first tested by computing the energetics of a group of O 2 and O 3 reactions for which the relevant experimental data are available. On the basis of these results, the BLYP and BPW91 functionals were selected, in conjunction with the 6-31G * and 6-311G(2df) basis sets. The calculated enthalpies of formation of O 4 varied between 92.6 and 97.2 kcal/mol, bracketing a reported CCSD(T) value of 95 kcal/mol. For O 6 , O 8 , and O 12 , however, Kohn-Sham procedures were unable to consistently locate energy minima, even though Hartree-Fock and MP2 approaches do succeed in this respect. It appears that any energy minima that may in reality exist for O 6 , O 8 , and O 12 are very shallow, which is consistent with a conclusion reached earlier for O 4 .