Activity Ramps Up on NetworkOil E-Commerce Marketplace; $1.7 Million Worth of Equipment Traded Over the Site.

Business Editors

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 1, 2000

NetworkOil, Inc., a global Internet marketplace for petroleum equipment and services, today announced that the number of participants in the NetworkOil marketplace has increased 340% to 220 companies during its second round of pilot transactions that began five weeks ago. Equipment purchased through NetworkOil to date totals more than $1.7 million.

The first NetworkOil pilot program, known as the Pathfinder Evaluation, launched in late January with 12 buyers and sellers of casing, tubing, packers and wellheads for drilling projects. These transactions provided NetworkOil with feedback from both buyers and sellers that led to technical enhancements and new functionality for the marketplace to better meet the needs of oilfield business processes.

In mid-March, a second pilot program, Pathfinder Two, was launched with more than 50 buyers and sellers exchanging goods in six product categories. While Pathfinder Two was initially rolled out as a means to gather feedback on improvements, its success accelerated the company's plans to transition directly into full-time availability of the marketplace.

Demand for the NetworkOil business solution and positive feedback on the functionality played a significant role in a steady increase in the volume of product categories, participants and transactions. More than 220 buyers and sellers can now access NetworkOil to conduct business, and based on daily registration requests, the company expects the user base to continue to grow at a steady pace.

According to suppliers, one of the many advantages of the NetworkOil request for bid (RFB) process is access to a broad number of oil and gas companies and greater ease of sales. Jeff Watson, president of Watson Pipe in Corpus Christi, Texas, commented, "Getting bid requests from entirely new buyers is a great opportunity for my company to expand its business partnerships."

Oil and gas companies, as buyers, reported the automated request procedure allowed them to evaluate more bids and increased price discovery. "Through NetworkOil, I was essentially able to broadcast our need simultaneously to a wider number of suppliers and many of them got back to us before the end of the day," said Rod Kane, production engineer of Breitburn Energy Company. "Instead of making phone calls and waiting on return calls and faxes over a period of days and even weeks, I can spend more time increasing oil production."

Other participants concurred that the "simple, user-friendly" transaction process at NetworkOil would encourage more e-commerce transactions at the site.

Currently there are 13 product categories available through NetworkOil including tubing, casing, line pipe, christmas trees, wellheads, packers, dehydrators, heater treaters, line heaters, sucker rods, separators, tanks and pumping units. By June contract compression and additional artificial lift equipment will be added along with services such as casing crews, drilling and completion contractors, stimulation, cementing and logging services.

"At NetworkOil, we directly support our e-commerce participants through hands-on orientation sessions and by soliciting customer feedback," said Steve Martin, chief executive officer of NetworkOil. "This approach has allowed us to continually improve the business solution we are providing, which in turn has led to the rapid growth in the use of our marketplace."

NetworkOil is actively registering new marketplace users. The NetworkOil marketplace is secure and password-protected for participating companies.

About NetworkOil

NetworkOil is the premier, global Internet marketplace for petroleum services and new and used equipment. The electronic exchange provides a secure, neutral forum for conducting a variety of transactions including requests for bid, auctions and reverse auctions. Companies now invested in NetworkOil represent over $11 billion in capital expenditures. The NetworkOil management team and investor group is drawn from the oil and gas, e-commerce, technology and financial industries. Headquartered in Houston, NetworkOil has offices throughout North America in San Antonio, Dallas and Midland, Texas; Lafayette, Louisiana; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Denver, Colorado; Bakersfield, California; Traverse City, Michigan; and Calgary, Alberta. Additional information is available at http://www.networkoil.com.