W&T Offshore Announces First Production at Big Bend Field, Expecting Production Of 20K Barrels Of Oil Equivalents/Day Gross - 91% To Be Oil Production

W&T Offshore, Inc.

announced today that "Big Bend" in Mississippi Canyon 698 was successfully brought on production and will be ramping up to full rates over the next few weeks. Big Bend along with "Dantzler" in Mississippi Canyon 782/738 are part of the Rio Grande Loop project in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico operated by Noble Energy. The Big Bend field achieved first production on October 26 and is expected to ramp up towards a peak rate in excess of 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day gross, with over 91% of the production being oil. In addition, the Company expects that first oil from the Dantzler Field should be achieved in early November. Stabilized production from the field is now expected sometime in December. Estimated combined production from both fields should be at a peak rate of around 8,000 Boe per day net to W&T's interest by year end. The Company has a 20% working interest in both Big Bend and Dantzler. The Rio Grande Loop is a subsea tieback development to the third-party Thunder Hawk production host facility. Tracy Krohn, W&T Offshore's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "We are very pleased to announce first production from this world class and prolific deepwater field, and we are equally pleased that the development of the two Dantzler discoveries are being completed well ahead of schedule. It is also gratifying that a major deepwater project of this magnitude is coming on stream timely and on budget. These fields represent a substantial part of W&T's growth and are expected to boost our 2015 production exit rates significantly."