Continental Southern Resources Owns 9% Interest in Project Through Ownership Interest in APICO LLC; Amerada Hess to Invest $200 Million in Thai Gas Field.

Business Editors

BANGKOK, Thailand--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 9, 2003

U.S. integrated oil company Amerada Hess Corp. (NYSE:AHC) said on Friday it plans to invest about $200 million in exploration and production operations in northeast Thailand over the next two years.

Jan Evensen, general manager of Amerada Hess (Thailand) Ltd. told Reuters the planned investment would be made at its Phu Horm-3 concession block in northeast Udon Thani province, which he estimated contains 400-800 billion cubic feet of dry natural gas.

"We plan to spend in the magnitude of $200 million in the next five years," Evensen said.

He said recent production tests at Phu Horm-3 produced a daily flow of 46 million cubic feet (1.3 million cubic metres) of gas.

Evensen said Amerada Hess planned to start commercial gas production from Phu Horm-3 from mid-2005, but would try to bring the date forward to late 2004.

He said gas produced from the block would be fed to a power plant in nearby Khon Kaen Province.

Amerada Hess(Thailand) Limited and APICO LLC, a U.S. based oil and gas company, each have a 40% interest in Block E5N (following completion of a farm-in by APICO) and PTT Exploration and Production Pcl, the national exploration and production company of Thailand, has a 20% interest. Amerada Hess (Thailand) Limited and APICO also own the outstanding working interest in Block EU1. PTT has the right to back in to Block EU1 for a 20% working interest at commerciality. Continental Southern Resources (OTC:CSOR) owns an approximate 22% interest in APICO , which equates to an approximate 9% interest in the Phu Horm Project.

About Continental Southern Resources

Continental has a 4.5% interest in Oklahoma's Potato Hills Deep Gas Project, operated by the GHK Company; an option to purchase a 10% interest in the Indian Prospect, an ongoing 21,000 foot Hunton test in the deep Anadarko Basin of Western Oklahoma, operated by The GHK Company, currently at a drill depth of 7,000 feet; a 21.5% ownership interest in Apico LLC which equates to a 9% interest in Thailand's Phu Horm project operated by Amerada Hess (NYSE:AHC). In addition, Continental has a 50% interest in the Knox Miss Project on 125,000 gross acres in the Black Warrior Basin in Northern Mississippi and Alabama, operated by Clayton Williams Exploration (NASDAQ:CWEI); a 40% interest in the Hell Hole Bayou in Louisiana, which has already drilled two initially unsuccessful exploration wells, but which Continental believes contains several remaining prospects on approximately 900 acres that Continental intends to pursue over the next year. Continental also owns a 25% interest in Louisiana Shelf Partners, L.P. which owns shallow and deep prospects located on 3,600 acres in Cameron Parish in offshore Louisiana, and which should be drilling its initial exploration well in the next 30 days. Continental has also identified two other prospects which it will have an option to purchase from GHK, the Big O Prospect, a bypassed fractured shale gas play in the Texas-Oklahoma panhandle region, and the Mountain From Prospect, along the frontal Wichita Mountains of Western Oklahoma.

This release contains certain forward-looking statements regarding potential future events and development affecting the business of the Company.

These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties or other factors not under the Company's control which may cause actual results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from the future results, performance, achievements or other expectations expressed or implied by these forward -looking statements.