MDR McDermott International Inc

McDermott International, Inc. (NYSE:MDR) (�McDermott�), announced today that a subsidiary of J. Ray McDermott, S.A. (�J. Ray�) was recently awarded a contract by Woodside for the Pluto Offshore Platform north west of Karratha, Western Australia. The scope of work for this contract includes the installation engineering, transportation and installation of the complete platform. Contracts of this nature are typically valued at approximately $100 million, and this contract was recorded in McDermott�s Offshore Oil & Gas Construction segment�s backlog during the fourth quarter of 2007. �The award of this contract is an excellent follow-up to the successful transportation and installation that J. Ray completed on the Angel Platform, also for Woodside and it demonstrates our strength of experience in installation projects offshore Australia,� said Bob Deason, Chief Executive Officer of J. Ray. �We look forward to working with Woodside once again.� The substructure, a four-leg extended base tower with a launch weight of 10,000 metric tons, will be secured with drilled and grouted foundations by J. Ray�s 3,080-ton capacity construction barge, the DB30. The DB30 will also lift and install the topsides. Work will commence in the first quarter of 2008 and is expected to be completed fourth quarter 2009. The Pluto gas field was discovered in April 2005 in the Carnarvon Basin. The field is located approximately 190 kilometers north west of Karratha. McDermott is an engineering and construction company, with specialty manufacturing and service capabilities, focused on energy infrastructure. McDermott�s customers are predominantly utilities and other power generators, major and national oil companies, and the United States Government. With its global operations, McDermott operates in over 20 countries with more than 20,000 employees, and can be found on the internet at www.mcdermott.com. 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 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, among other things, the value and anticipated timing of work associated with the Pluto contract. 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 based on various underlying assumptions and are subject to numerous uncertainties and risks, including without limitation, change orders, project schedule adjustments and other modifications and other revisions to the contract. 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 for the year ended December 31, 2006 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.