Announcement • Aug 17

Empire Petroleum Marks Strategic Milestone with Successful 21,006-Foot Well in the Western Haynesville in Texas to Accelerate Revenue Development

Empire Petroleum Corporation announced the successful 21,006-foot re-entry and subsurface evaluation of the Wakefield-Harrison GU B #1 well in the Fort Trinidad field in Madison County, Texas, marking a strategic milestone in its Texas gas development program. Empire is the first microcap energy company to re-enter a wellbore first drilled in 1959 and deepened twice in the decade that followed. The Company overcame technical and operational challenges to drill, underream, and clean out the well to 21,006 feet measured depth (20,949 feet true vertical depth), exposing fresh formation. Empire successfully ran a full, modern open-hole logging suite and recovered sidewall cores. Hydrocarbon shows, both gas and liquids, were recorded across the logged interval, with C1 and C4-plus identified on the gas chromatograph. The Fort Trinidad field was historically developed to roughly 10,000 feet, and the Wakefield-Harrison GU B #1 opens approximately 11,000 feet of section below that. This is the deepest modern subsurface evaluation in the emerging Western Haynesville play to be completed with a full open-hole log and sidewall cores. At 20,949 feet true vertical depth, the Wakefield-Harrison B #1 is approximately 1,713 feet deeper than Comstock Resources’ publicly reported McCullough GLR #3 well and approximately 2,398 feet deeper than Expand Energy’s Bobby Yancey #1 pilot well, with all depth comparisons based on true vertical depth. Empire also successfully returned a complete open-hole logging suite and sidewall cores at temperatures of up to 434 degrees Fahrenheit. The well was evaluated in an area where operators including Comstock Resources, Expand Energy, Mitsui E&P USA, Hilcorp Energy, Caturus Energy, and Adamas Energy are actively pursuing deep Cotton Valley, Bossier, and Haynesville objectives. Empire achieved this subsurface control at a cost of approximately $4.4 million by re-entering and underreaming an existing wellbore rather than drilling a new ultra-deep well, while other operators across the Western Haynesville are drilling and completing new wells at reported costs of $30.0 million to $45.0 million each. By leveraging a legacy wellbore that was never plugged and abandoned, Empire obtained modern log and core data at depths exceeding those publicly disclosed by offset operators, while avoiding the substantial capital, schedule, and infrastructure requirements typically associated with new ultra-deep drilling. The Wakefield-Harrison GU B #1 also forms the foundation for Empire’s focused development strategy in two primary intervals of the Intermediate Production Zones and Deep Productive Zones within the Fort Trinidad Field. By establishing modern subsurface control across roughly 11,000 feet of previously untested section, the well provides the data required to advance planning and convert deeper targets into future development locations. Modern well logs and successfully recovered core samples will assist the Company in reprocessing its existing 3D seismic data with significantly improved resolution and subsurface clarity. The two additional wells being deepened will provide modern logs, vertical seismic profile data, and core samples to further enhance 3D seismic data across Empire’s entire acreage position.

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Empire Petroleum Marks Strategic Milestone with Successful 21,006-Foot Well in the Western Haynesville in Texas to Accelerate Revenue Development

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