PRESS RELEASE: August 14, 2006

J. Ray McDermott To Build 16 Deck Modules for Saudi Aramco

J. Ray McDermott, S.A. (J. Ray) announced that one of its subsidiaries has won a new contract from Saudi Aramco to supply 16 Production Deck Modules (PDMs) for Saudi Arabia's offshore fields.

"These 16 PDMs form part of Saudi Aramco's Maintain Potential program that aims to increase offshore production capacity", said Hafez Aghili, J. Ray's senior vice president for the Middle East and India. "In December last year we were awarded work by Saudi Aramco to build the corresponding 16 jackets, which once installed will support these production deck modules."

J. Ray will carry out construction engineering, partial procurement, and fabrication of these modules at the company's Jebel Ali fabrication yard. Each PDM weighs an average of 450 MT. First steel will be cut for the modules in October 2006 - procurement and engineering is already underway.

All installation work will be carried out by J. Ray. The first two decks are scheduled for installation by the middle of 2007, followed by 10 decks by the end of October 2007, with the remaining four decks scheduled for installation by the middle of 2008.

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For more information, please contact:

Louise Denly
Director, Public Relations
J. Ray McDermott, Inc.
Houston, TX
(281) 870-5000
E-Mail:ldenly@mcdermott.com
www.mcdermott.com