Empire Petroleum Announces Closing of Acquisition of Oil and Natural Gas Assets in North Dakota's Landa Madison Unit and New Birdbear Focus Area in Central-West Williston Basin

Acquisition Provides Immediate Accretive Cash Flow and Increased Scale with Minimal Incremental Overhead

TULSA, Okla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Empire Petroleum (NYSE American: EP) ("Empire" or the "Company"), an oil and gas company with current producing assets in Texas, Louisiana, North Dakota, Montana and New Mexico, announced today that it has closed the acquisition of operated and non-operated oil and natural gas assets from a publicly-owned oil and gas company on April 1, 2022. The acquired assets are located in the Landa Madison and Landa West Madison Units in Bottineau County, North Dakota and the Birdbear Area in Golden Valley and Billings County, North Dakota.

Acquisition Highlights

• Provides immediate accretive cash flow and increased scale with minimal incremental overhead;
• Increases North Dakota pro forma net production by an estimated 24% to approximately 9,250 barrels of oil equivalent per month⁽¹⁾;
• Evaluated solely on proved developed producing ("PDP") reserves based on forward prices substantially below current levels;
• Adds approximately 700,000 BOE of long-life PDP reserves⁽²⁾;
• Doubles the leasehold position of Empire’s operated Landa Field and creates a uniform wholly-operated field with calculated original oil in place (OOIP) of approximately 6.5 million barrels;
• The Birdbear Play in Central Western North Dakota adds a new potential consolidation play in the Williston Basin’s prolific Devonian formations; and
• Transaction funded from cash on hand.

The acquisition includes an average operated working interest of 92% and an average net revenue interest of 73% in 15 operated producing wells along with an average non-operated working interest of 6% and average non-operated net revenue interest of 5% in 9 wells currently operated by Empire. The acquisition also includes 2,482 net leasehold acres. Current estimated gross daily production from the assets are approximately 118 barrels of oil.

"We are pleased to successfully close on another accretive transaction - the acquisition of both operated and non-operated oil assets in the prolific and long-life Williston Basin in North Dakota," said Mike Morrisett, President. "Empire has a clear strategy based on evaluating and executing bolt-on transactions that meet similar criteria while keeping debt levels at a conservative level. We remain focused on organic growth while securing additional incremental long-life and low-decline reserves that generate strong cash flow."

"Empire’s purchase of the Landa Madison Unit and the addition of non-operated interests to our existing Landa West Madison Unit completes a mission that our team embarked on starting shortly after our purchase of properties from EnergyQuest II in 2019," added Tommy Pritchard, Chief Executive Officer. "Putting the two units together makes great development sense and we believe this field has the potential to grow and become one of our larger producing assets in North Dakota. Additionally, the Devonian Birdbear Formation holds great promise for Empire as an area that has all the criteria that our team looks for in oil and gas assets. Birdbear has similar attributes to those found on the Eastern flanks of the Williston Basin in Bottineau County and can be easily operated from our current North Dakota infrastructure."

Notes:

(1) Pro forma production estimate based on average six months ended 3/31/2022.
(2) Reserves calculations are based on Company-engineered reserves estimates as of 2/1/2022 at fixed 12/31/2021 SEC prices of $3.64/MMBTU and $66.55/barrel.

About Empire Petroleum

Empire Petroleum Corporation is a publicly traded, Tulsa-based oil and gas company with current producing assets in Texas, Louisiana, North Dakota, Montana and New Mexico. Management is focused on targeted acquisitions of proved developed assets with synergies with its existing portfolio of wells. More information about Empire can be found at www.empirepetrocorp.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

This 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. Forward-looking statements involve a wide variety of risks and uncertainties, and include, without limitations, statements with respect to the Company’s estimates, strategy and prospects. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties which are disclosed in the Company’s reports filed with the SEC, including its Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021, and its other filings with the SEC. Readers and investors are cautioned that the Company’s actual results may differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements due to a number of factors, including, but not limited to, the Company’s ability to acquire productive oil and/or gas properties or to successfully drill and complete oil and/or gas wells on such properties, general economic conditions both domestically and abroad, and other risks and uncertainties related to the conduct of business by the Company.