Continental Resources Reports Completion Results on Its First Well in the Three Forks/Sanish Formation in North Dakota Bakken Area

Continental Resources, Inc. announced initial results from its Bice 1-29H well completed in the Three Forks/Sanish formation in the North Dakota Bakken Shale area. The Dunn County well, in which Continental has a 41% working interest, is the Company’s first well to be completed in the Three Forks/Sanish formation. Previous wells drilled by the Company have been completed in the upper portion of the Middle Bakken zone, which is found up to 110 feet above the top of the Three Forks/Sanish formation on the Company’s acreage.

“The Bice 1-29H flowed at an average rate of 693 barrels of crude oil equivalent per day during its initial seven days of production,” said Harold Hamm, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer for Continental Resources. “We are very pleased with these results. This is our first well designed to test the theory that the Three Forks/Sanish formation may be a separate oil-producing reservoir not drained by a horizontal completion in the Middle Bakken zone above it.”

Continental is the largest leaseholder in the Bakken Shale play, with 490,000 acres in North Dakota and Montana. The majority of its acreage runs north-to-south along the crest of the Nesson Anticline in North Dakota. The Bice 1-29H is located in the southern part of the anticline, where the top of the Three Forks/Sanish formation lies approximately 50 feet beneath the upper portion of the Middle Bakken zone. The Company plans to drill additional wells in the coming months to further test the potential for the Three Forks/Sanish formation to add incremental reserves to the play.

On April 10, 2008 the U.S. Geological Survey published a new assessment of undiscovered, technically recoverable crude oil in the North Dakota and Montana Bakken Shale Play, estimating that 3 billion to 4.3 billion barrels of undiscovered crude oil are technically recoverable with currently available technology and industry practices. This was a 25-fold increase over the previous USGS assessment, published in 1995. The 2008 estimate made the Bakken the largest continuous oil accumulation ever assessed by the USGS in the lower 48 states.

Trenton/Black River Update

Continental Resources also announced positive results while drilling its fourth operated well, the Boardman 1-1, in the Trenton/Black River play in Hillsdale County, MI. The Boardman 1-1 was drilled to a total depth of 4,010 feet and exhibited 190 feet of net pay, based upon indications while drilling. The Company said that at 3,939 feet, the drill bit dropped 22 feet, indicating a cavernous karsted dolomite section. The pay zone in this well appears to be comparable to the Company’s previous three producing wells nearby. Continental has an 83% working interest in the Boardman 1-1.

The Company has set casing in the Boardman 1-1 and expects to begin completion operations within the next 10 days. The three previous wells in the area, the McArthur 1-36, the Anspaugh 1-1 and the Wessel 1-6, are currently producing at a state-restricted rate of 650 bopd.

The Company is moving the rig to commence drilling the second well of a four-well drilling program in the area. Additional drilling operations are expected later this year.

Continental Resources is a crude-oil concentrated, independent oil and natural gas exploration and production company with operations in the Rocky Mountain, Mid-Continent and Gulf Coast regions of the United States. The Company focuses its operations in large new and developing plays where horizontal drilling, advanced fracture stimulation and enhanced recovery technologies provide the means to economically develop and produce oil and natural gas reserves from unconventional formations.

Contact: Warren Henry

Continental Resources, Inc.
(580) 548-5127

Source: Continental Resources, Inc.