PRESS RELEASE: November 27, 2006

J. Ray McDermott Awarded Contract by Shell for Module Construction

J. Ray McDermott, S.A. (J. Ray) announced today that one of its subsidiaries was awarded the URSA Princess Water Flood topsides fabrication contract for Shell Offshore, Inc.

J. Ray's Morgan City fabrication facility will undertake the construction of the water filtration, water injection, and sulphate removal topside modules, interconnecting structures, and 1,700ST of associated water injection equipment, which will be installed on the top level of the existing URSA platform.

"Adjusting to market conditions, the Morgan City facility has positioned itself to be competitive on small and non-traditional projects as well as for the new cycle of deepwater jackets, platforms, and subsea systems for the Gulf of Mexico and beyond," said Bob Deason, president and chief operating officer. "Diversification is one of the keys to growing our Morgan City fabrication backlog."

Work on the topsides project is scheduled to be completed and installed on location in the last quarter of 2007.

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For more information, please contact:

Louise Denly
Director, Corporate Communications
J. Ray McDermott,
Houston, TX 77079
(281) 870-5025
E-Mail:ldenly@mcdermott.com
www.mcdermott.com