Murphy Oil Corporation announced today that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Murphy Central Dohuk Oil Co., Ltd., has finalised an agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government-Iraq (KRG) to acquire an interest in the Central Dohuk block. Murphy will operate and hold a 50% interest in the block. The Central Dohuk block covers approximately 619 km2 and is located in the Dohuk area of the Kurdistan region.

David M. Wood, Murphy’s President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We are delighted with our entry into Kurdistan and to add another high quality oil exploration opportunity to our portfolio. The Central Dohuk block sits within a world-class petroleum province and on trend with recent exploration drilling which has shown much recent promise. We plan to shoot seismic in 2011 with an exploration well to follow in 2012.”