Murphy announces deepwater discovery offshore Congo

Murphy Oil Corp.'s deepwater Azurite Marine No. 1 exploration well hit oil. The exploration well, drilled in 4,531 ft water depth in the Mer Profonde Sud block offshore the Republic of Congo encountered significant oil pay in multiple reservoirs of Lower Miocene age.

"The discovery of over 160 ft of net oil pay with no associated water in two main horizons is an outstanding result from our first exploration well offshore deepwater Congo," says Claiborne P. Deming, Murphy's president and CEO. "We found high quality oil in sands with excellent reservoir properties and believe this structure could contain over 100 MMbbl. There are a number of similar prospects in this area of MPS and we look forward to aggressively exploring them." Deming says the rig now on Azurite Marine No. 1 will soon move to a new structure and drill the Saphir Marine No. 1 well 18 km away.

Murphy operates the 800,000-acre Mer Profonde Sud block with 85% working interest. The Congolese national oil company, Societe Nationale Petroles du Congo, holds the remaining 15%.

1/28/05