Atwood Oceanics, Inc. (NYSE:ATW) (a Houston based International offshore Drilling Contractor) - announced today that the ATWOOD HUNTER has been awarded a contract by Burullus Gas Company ("Burullus") to drill ten firm wells plus options to drill six additional wells offshore Egypt.

Drilling of the ten firm wells is expected to take around 400 days to complete and if all six option wells are drilled, the contract could extend to around 550 days.

The contract provides for a dayrate of $62,400 for all firm and option wells, with a mobilization fee of $100,000 plus towing vessels to tow the rig to Egypt from its present location in Tunisia provided by Burullus. The rig will move to the first Burullus drilling location immediately upon completing its current contract in Tunisia, which should be completed in late December 2003 or early January 2004.

The ATWOOD EAGLE is currently idle offshore Angola preparing to be mobilized in January 2004 to its next contract location. The Company has commitments from BHP Billiton Petroleum Pty. Ltd. ("BHP") and Apache Energy Limited ("Apache") to equally share $5.5 million of mobilization fees to relocate the ATWOOD EAGLE from Angola to Australia for drilling programs which include three firm wells plus four option wells. Drilling of the three firm wells is expected to take three to four months to complete. These commitments provide for a dayrate of $109,000 for all wells drilled in water depths of 600 meters or more and a dayrate of $89,000 for all wells drilled in water depths below 600 meters. The first three wells are planned to be in over 600 meters water depth. A demobilization fee ranging from $4 million if no more than four wells are drilled to zero if twelve or more wells are drilled is also provided. In accordance with these commitments, the Company has entered into a contract with a towing company to transport the rig from Angola to Australia, which is estimated to take approximately 30 days, with the tow scheduled to commence around mid-January 2004. Drilling contracts with BHP and Apache should be formalized by late December 2003 or early January 2004.