MDR McDermott International Inc

McDermott International, Inc. (NYSE:MDR) ("McDermott"), announced today that a subsidiary of J. Ray McDermott, S.A. ("J. Ray") has been awarded a $77 million contract by Woodside Energy Ltd., operator of the North West Shelf Venture's (the "Venture") Phase V LNG Expansion project in Australia. Under the contract, J. Ray will undertake construction engineering, procurement, fabrication, assembly and erection of 75 pre-assembled module and pipe rack units totaling nearly 22,000 short tons. Completed modules and pipe racks will be shipped from J. Ray's Batam Island, Indonesian fabrication facility to Western Australia, and transported to the Venture's LNG facilities on the Burrup Peninsula where the new LNG "Train V" is being constructed. "The North West Shelf Venture contract is a welcome addition to our fabrication backlog at Batam, and work has already begun in preparation for this project," said Bob Deason, President and Chief Operating Officer of J. Ray. "J. Ray is very pleased to be working with the Venture and its operator on Train V, and in furthering the development of Australia's natural resources." Structural fabrication work on the project is scheduled to begin in October 2005, with piping fabrication planned to commence by the beginning of next year. J. Ray will also provide interface management with other contractors, suppliers and vendors. The six equal participants in the North West Shelf Venture are: BHP Billiton Petroleum (North West Shelf) Pty Ltd; BP Developments Australia Pty Ltd; Chevron Australia Pty Ltd; Japan Australia LNG (MIMI) Pty Ltd; Shell Development (Australia) Proprietary Ltd; and Woodside Energy (Operator). CNOOC NWS Private Limited is also a member of the North West Shelf Venture but does not have an interest in the Venture's infrastructure. J. Ray McDermott is a leading provider of solutions for offshore field development worldwide. McDermott is a leading worldwide energy services company. McDermott's subsidiaries provide engineering, fabrication, installation, procurement, research, manufacturing, environmental systems, project management and facilities management services to a variety of customers in the energy industry, including the U.S. Department of Energy. In accordance with the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, McDermott International, Inc. cautions that statements in this press release which are forward-looking and which provide other than historical information, involve risks and uncertainties that may impact McDermott's actual results of operations. The forward-looking statements in this press release include statements related to the value of the Woodside contract award, expected work scope and scheduled work timing. Although McDermott's management believes that the expectations reflected in those forward-looking statements are reasonable, McDermott can give no assurance that those expectations will prove to have been correct. Those statements are made by using various underlying assumptions and are subject to numerous uncertainties and risks. If one or more of these risks materialize, or if underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those expected. For a more complete discussion of these risk factors, please see McDermott's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2004 and its reports on Form 10-Q which are filed quarterly.