Murphy Oil Acquires Acreage Offshore Republic of Congo.

Business Editors

EL DORADO, Ark.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 13, 2003

Murphy Oil Corporation (NYSE:MUR) announces that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Murphy West Africa, Ltd., has signed two production sharing contracts covering adjoining blocks Mer Profonde Sud (MPS) and Mer Profonde Nord (MPN), offshore Republic of Congo. Murphy West Africa, Ltd. is the operator and has an 85% working interest in both blocks. The exploration and production arm of Societe Nationale des Petroles du Congo (SNPC) holds the remaining interest. The blocks, located in the Lower Congo Basin, lie in water depths ranging from 450 feet to 6,900 feet and total approximately 1.8 million gross acres.

Claiborne P. Deming, Murphy's President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "We are extremely pleased with Murphy West Africa, Ltd.'s acquisition of these two blocks with our partner SNPC. This acreage has only been lightly explored and lies on trend with major discoveries. MPS and MPN have all the fundamental characteristics of high potential areas including proven oil source rocks, multiple play types and good fiscal terms. These blocks are strong additions to Murphy's acreage position and fit the organic growth model Murphy is successfully executing in other parts of the world."

The forward-looking statements reflected in this release are made in reliance upon the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. No assurance can be given that the results discussed herein will be attained, and certain important factors that may cause actual results to differ materially are contained in Murphy's January 15, 1997 Form 8-K report on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.