Grey Wolf Acquires New Patriot Drilling

Grey Wolf Drilling

Grey Wolf has agreed to acquire all of the outstanding stock and stock equivalents of New Patriot Drilling Corp. for $16.3 million in cash and 4,610,480 shares of Grey Wolf common stock. In addition, Grey Wolf will retire the outstanding debt of Patriot that is expected to be $13.7 million at closing. The cash consideration is subject to adjustment for changes in Patriot's working capital and outstanding debt at closing. Closing is subject to certain conditions being met and is expected to take place in April 2004.

Headquartered in Casper, Wyoming, Patriot owns 10 drilling rigs, eight are currently working and the remaining two are under contract and are expected to begin work in Wyoming in the next two months. Three of the rigs currently working are in Wyoming and five are in Colorado. Patriot's drilling rig fleet consists of three diesel electric rigs ranging in horsepower from 1,000 to 3,000 and seven mechanical rigs ranging in horsepower from 450 to 700. Patriot employs approximately 250 people.

"We will be extremely pleased to have Patriot's President and Chief Executive Officer, Kyle Swingle, and Bob Sanderson, Vice President, and their team join the Grey Wolf family and manage our Rocky Mountain division. They have many years of experience in the Rocky Mountain market and have done an excellent job in building Patriot," commented Tom Richards, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Grey Wolf. "We will consolidate the Rocky Mountain management and operations of both companies in Casper with a total of 14 rigs in the market. We believe the Rockies hold great potential for increased natural gas drilling, and with the closing of this transaction, we will operate a versatile fleet of rigs addressing a wide range of customers' needs."

Patriot is principally owned by Lime Rock Partners, a private equity firm specializing in making growth equity investments in the energy sector. Patriot was advised in the transaction by Parks Paton Hoepfl & Brown, an investment banking firm focused in the oilfield services industry.

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