HOUSTON, Jan. 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- W&T Offshore, Inc. (NYSE: WTI) today provided an update on its 2009 drilling activities, 2009 production guidance as well as 2010 planned capital expenditures.

For full year 2009, the Company has made discoveries and successfully completed seven of nine exploration wells, for a success rate of 78%, which included a 100% success rate on the conventional shelf.  Additionally, the Company successfully drilled and completed two of three development wells, all of which were on the conventional shelf.  For the 13 wells drilled in 2009, the Company achieved a success rate of 75%.  Furthermore, at year-end 2009 we were in the early stages of drilling one exploration well.  Also during 2009, the Company successfully completed and brought online our Daniel Boone prospect (Green Canyon 646) in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.  

During the fourth quarter, the Company drilled or participated in the drilling of the following successful wells:

Well                      Category                  Working Interest %



S. Louisiana Well         Exploration / Onshore     50%

S. Timbalier 23 SD-18 ST2 Exploration / Conv. Shelf 30%

2010 Capital Expenditure Guidance:  Our total capital expenditure budget for 2010 is expected to be approximately $450 million.  We anticipate fully funding our 2010 capital budget with internally generated cash flow and cash on hand.  Currently, the budget includes seven conventional shelf exploration wells.  It also includes other capital items such as well recompletions, facilities capital, seismic and leasehold items.  At this time, we anticipate these capital expenditures to cost approximately $150 million.  The balance of the $450 million budget will be allocated to acquisitions, additional drilling opportunities from the company's prospect inventory and/or new joint ventures offshore on the shelf and deepwater and onshore.  WTI is determined to remain as flexible as possible and believes this strategy holds the best promise for value creation and growth.  

Production: We expect to meet our fourth quarter production guidance for 2009 of between 21.9 Bcfe and 26.8 Bcfe and our full-year production guidance of between 93.8 Bcfe and 98.7 Bcfe.  At year-end, our production rate was approximately 232 MMcfe per day.  During 2009, we focused on increasing oil production and for the month of December, our oil and liquids production as a percentage of total production was approximately 47%.

Tracy W. Krohn, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "The Company is well positioned to prosper in 2010 in these market conditions.  We will aggressively pursue additional opportunities in the form of acquisitions and joint venture participations, which is consistent with our historical practice.  What is different in 2010 is the organizational effort that has been formulated to achieve our corporate goals.  We have recently relocated exploration geology to Houston from Metairie, Louisiana and will be adding staff to focus our efforts on both onshore and offshore.  Similarly, we are adding staff to increase our M&A effort as well.  One of the reasons we went public was to access public capital markets, but also to elevate our visibility to pursue merger and acquisition opportunities."

About W&T Offshore

W&T Offshore is an independent oil and natural gas company focused primarily in the Gulf of Mexico, including exploration in the deepwater and deep shelf regions, where it has developed significant technical expertise.  W&T has grown through acquisition, exploitation and exploration and holds working interests in approximately 82 fields, in federal and state waters and a majority of its daily production is derived from wells it operates.  For more information on W&T Offshore, please visit its Web site at www.wtoffshore.com.  

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains 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.  These forward-looking statements reflect our current views with respect to future events, based on what we believe are reasonable assumptions.  No assurance can be given, however, that these events will occur.  These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially including, among other things, market conditions, oil and gas price volatility, uncertainties inherent in oil and gas production operations and estimating reserves, unexpected future capital expenditures, competition, the success of our risk management activities, governmental regulations, uncertainties and other factors discussed in our Annual Report on 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008 (www.sec.gov).

Contacts:

Manuel Mondragon, Vice President of Finance

investorrelations@wtoffshore.com

713-297-8024



Ken Dennard / ksdennard@drg-e.com

Lisa Elliott / lelliott@drg-e.com

DRG&E / 713-529-6600

SOURCE W&T Offshore, Inc.