Drilling and Energy Divisions Weatherford International Ltd. announces that the company has signed a definitive agreement to purchase Precision Drilling Corp.'s Energy Services Division and International Contract Drilling Division. Under the terms of the agreement, Weatherford will pay approximately $2.28 billion, consisting of 26 million Weatherford common shares and approximately $900 million in cash, based on current exchange rates. The cash portion of the consideration is payable in Canadian dollars. Acquired net book value is about $1.63 billion. Weatherford expects the transaction to be accretive to its earnings per share and cash flow per share for 2005, before consideration of potential synergies. Precision's Energy Services division is a global provider of cased hole and open hole wireline services, drilling and evaluation services (directional drilling, MWD, LWD and rotary steerable systems) and production services (primarily underbalanced drilling). Weatherford's cased hole wireline and underbalanced segments will be consolidated by this transaction. Furthermore, the transaction will substantially broaden the company's open hole wireline and directional capabilities.

Precision's International Contract Drilling division is an international land rig contractor. It became a major player in the international market after its acquisition of the worldwide land drilling assets of Global Santa Fe Corp. in May 2004. Precision currently has 48 rigs, with a strong presence in the Middle East/North Africa.

The availability of these assets will allow the company to further meet customers' bundling needs in the region.

In 2004, Precision Energy Services and International Drilling had revenues of $1.1 billion (Canadian). The combined divisions have approximately 5,300 employees operating in more than two dozen countries.

Hank Swartout, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Precision, states, “This transaction is the result of an extensive process undertaken by the board of directors to explore possible avenues of value creation for our shareholders. After careful consideration of various strategic alternatives, the board determined this opportunity to be the best for our shareholders and for employees of the respective company divisions. “We believe the strategic fit with Weatherford will strengthen their global presence and provide opportunities for all stakeholders affected by this expanded Weatherford organization - shareholders, customers and employees. It currently is anticipated that a portion of the consideration received by Precision will be distributed to our shareholders following completion of the sale.”

Bernard Duroc-Danner, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Weatherford, comments, “What we are adding from Precision consolidates, strengthens and broadens critical segments of our business. Weatherford, in turn, will provide the Precision operations with the full support of our infrastructure, in particular in the Eastern Hemisphere. This is a growth strategy for shareholder value.”
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