Harvest Natural Resources Updates Drilling Operations - Qarn Alam Block 64, Oman

HOUSTON, Dec. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Harvest Natural Resources, Inc. (NYSE: HNR) announced today that the Mafraq South-A (MFS-1) exploration well onshore Oman has reached a revised total depth (TD) of 10,348 feet.  Logs did not indicate the presence of hydrocarbons within the stacked reservoir targets in the Barik, Miqrat and Amin reservoirs, and the well will be plugged and abandoned.  The reservoirs were encountered shallower than expected with reduced seal thickness, and failure is attributed to the lack of seal effectiveness.  The quality of the Barik and the Amin reservoirs was better than expected.

Drilling operations on the MFS-1 well progressed ahead of schedule with the well reaching TD 28 days ahead of the forecast drill time.  Consequently the dry hole cost will be lower than previously forecast and Harvest expects to expense $5.5 million in the current quarter.

MFS-1 is the first of a two-well exploratory program utilizing the MB Petroleum Services LLC Rig #113 drilling unit.  The rig will now move approximately 30 miles west to test the Al Ghubar North structure (AGN-A) which has the same stacked reservoir targets in the Barik, Miqrat and Amin formations in a different trap style to Mafraq South.

The AGN-A well is expected to spud in late December.  Targets are in the hanging wall fault block of a large salt supported structure, 10 miles to the east and updip from the producing Barik field.  Mean prospective resources of 960 Bcf of gas and 54 MMbbls of condensate in the Barik and 241 Bcf of gas in the Miqrat formation have been calculated.  The geological chance of success for a discovery in this well is estimated by Harvest to be 23 percent.  The AGN-A well will be drilled to a total vertical depth of approximately 10,300 feet to test coincident fault bounded dip closure at all three reservoir levels.  Dry hole cost for the AGN-A well is $8.1 million.

Harvest has an 80 percent interest in Block 64 onshore Oman.  Block 64 has an area of 3,874 square kilometers and was extracted from a pre-existing block (PDO's Block 6) to accelerate exploration for gas and gas condensate by the Omani Ministry of Oil and Gas.

About Harvest Natural Resources

Harvest Natural Resources, Inc., headquartered in Houston, Texas, is an independent energy company with principal operations in Venezuela, exploration assets in Indonesia, West Africa, China and Oman and business development offices in Singapore and the United Kingdom.  For more information visit the Company's website at www.harvestnr.com.

CONTACT:
Stephen C. Haynes
Vice President, Chief Financial Officer
(281) 899-5716

This press release may contain projections and other forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. They include estimates and timing of expected oil and gas production, oil and gas reserve projections of future oil pricing, future expenses, planned capital expenditures, anticipated cash flow and our business strategy. All statements other than statements of historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements. Although Harvest believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. Actual results may differ materially from Harvest's expectations as a result of factors discussed in Harvest's 2010 Annual Report on Form 10-K and other public filings.

SOURCE Harvest Natural Resources

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