Unit Corporation (NYSE: UNT) announced the following information
regarding its exploration segment for 2009 and certain 2010 information.

Oil and Natural Gas Segment Information

(The following information is unaudited and preliminary.Audited
results will be provided in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year
ended December 31, 2009.)

For 2009 this segment achieved the following reserve and production
results:

  • Year end proved reserves of 577.0 billion cubic feet equivalents
    (Bcfe).
  • Oil and natural gas production of 60.7 Bcfe.

This segment replaced 175% of its 2009 production (excluding negative
revisions of 38 Bcfe), or 113% when those revisions are taken into
account.

2009 Total Proved Oil and Natural Gas
Reserves

Total proved reserves at December 31, 2009 were 577.0 Bcfe of natural
gas, consisting of 11.7 million barrels (MMbls) of oil, 14.7 MMbls of
natural gas liquids (NGLs) and 419.1 Bcf of natural gas. This represents
a 1% increase over 2008 year-end total proved reserves. Eighty percent
of the company’s proved oil and natural gas reserves are “proved
developed”, with the remaining 20% comprising “proved undeveloped”
reserves. Natural gas comprises 73% of the total proved reserves.

Ryder Scott Company, L.P. (Ryder Scott), an independent reserve
engineering firm, audited the company’s proved reserves. Their audit
covered properties that made up about 85% of the company’s total proved
reserves at year end 2009.

The following details the changes to our proved reserves after December
31, 2008:

Proved Reserves

(Bcfe)
Proved Reserves, at December 31, 2008 569.4
Revisions of previous estimates* (37.9)
Extensions, discoveries and other additions 105.9
Purchases of minerals in place 0.3
Production (60.7)
Proved Reserves, at December 31, 2009 577.0

*Includes 26 Bcfe of pricing related revisions.

The estimated future net cash flow from our December 31, 2009 total
proved reserves, before income taxes, is $1.4 billion. The present value
of those reserves (before income taxes and discounted at 10% (PV-10)) is
about $0.8 billion. These value estimates were made using unescalated
prices of $61.18 per barrel of oil, $34.44 per barrel of NGLs and $3.86
per Mcf of natural gas, adjusted for price differentials, for the
estimated life of the respective properties. PV-10 is a non-GAAP
financial measure. See below for the reconciliation of PV-10 to the
standardized measure of discounted future net cash flows as defined by
GAAP.

Revised SEC Rules

The company’s proved reserves were calculated using the Securities and
Exchange Commission’s (SEC) revised rules that went into effect with
year-end 2009 reserve reporting. Instead of using the prices existing at
year-end to calculate the reserves as previously required under the
SEC’s old rules, the prices used were the average of the prices existing
on the first day of each prior 12 months. Consequently, the prices used
in our reserve estimates were $3.86 per million British thermal units
(MMbtu) for natural gas, $61.18 per barrel, and $34.44 per barrel for
NGL, as opposed to $5.79 per MMbtu for natural gas, $79.36 per barrel
for oil and $55.13 per barrel for NGLs, which would have been the prices
used under the old SEC rules. Unit’s proved reserves using the old SEC
pricing rules would have been approximately 608.7 Bcfe at December 31,
2009. This would have resulted in 164% replacement of production, as
compared to 113% under the new SEC rules, and reserve growth of 7%.

Preliminary 2009 Production and Wells
Drilled

Production during the fourth quarter of 2009 by this segment was 295,000
barrels of oil, 346,000 barrels of NGLs and 10.5 Bcf of natural gas, or
14.3 Bcfe, a decrease of 2% and 15% over the third quarter of 2009 and
the fourth quarter of 2008, respectively. Total production for 2009 was
60.7 Bcfe, a decrease of 4% from the 63.4 Bcfe produced in 2008.

During 2009 the company participated in the drilling of 95 wells
compared to 278 wells in 2008, a reduction of 66%.

2010 Contract Drilling Segment Rig Fleet Update

In January and February 2010, the company’s contract drilling segment
entered into contracts to sell eight of its idle mechanical drilling
rigs to an unaffiliated third party. These drilling rigs ranged in horse
power from 800 to 1,000. The closing on one of these drilling rigs
occurred on February 1, 2010. Five more are scheduled to close during
the first quarter of 2010 with the last transaction for the remaining
two rigs anticipated to close during the second quarter of 2010.
Proceeds from the sale of all the drilling rigs will be $23.9 million
resulting in an estimated gain of $6.1 million. On completion of these
transactions, this segment will have 122 drilling rigs in its fleet.

Management Comments

Larry Pinkston, President and Chief Executive Officer of Unit
Corporation, said: “The 2009 year was a very challenging one. Our oil
and natural gas segment intentionally reduced its drilling activities to
almost a standstill during the first half of the year while commodity
prices were rapidly decreasing. By mid-year 2009, with the cost to drill
and complete wells decreasing in some regions by as much as 40% to 50%,
we began to increase our exploration efforts. We exited 2009 with an
active drilling program and plan to continue that program into 2010.
During 2010, we plan to drill 175 wells, compared to 95 in 2009. Our
preliminary annual production guidance for 2010 is approximately 66.0 to
67.0 Bcfe, an increase of 9% to 10% over 2009.

“The new SEC rule pertaining to how year-end reserve report prices are
determined, particularly its impact on our natural gas price, had a
significant negative impact on the outcome of our 2009 year end
reserves. However, even with a significantly low level of drilling
activity and the new SEC pricing rules, we were still able to overcome
negative reserve revisions of 38 Bcfe, grow reserves and reduce
significantly the level of long-term debt outstanding.

“The proceeds from sale of the eight idle mechanical drilling rigs will
be used in our contract drilling segment to accelerate its 2010 plans to
refurbish and upgrade more rigs in the fleet targeted toward horizontal
drilling activity. The upgrades to the rigs will result in performance
improvements and additional customer opportunities.”

Fourth Quarter and Year-End 2009 Webcast

Unit will release its fourth quarter and year-end 2009 earnings and host
a conference call on Tuesday, February 23, 2010. The webcast will be
broadcast live over the Internet at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time at http://www.unitcorp.com.

Unit Corporation is a Tulsa-based, publicly held energy company engaged
through its subsidiaries in oil and natural gas exploration, production,
contract drilling and natural gas gathering and processing. Unit’s
Common Stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol
UNT. For more information about Unit Corporation, visit its website at http://www.unitcorp.com.

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning
of the private Securities Litigation Reform Act. All statements, other
than statements of historical facts, included in this release that
address activities, events or developments that the Company expects or
anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking
statements. A number of risks and uncertainties could cause actual
results to differ materially from these statements, including the impact
that the current decline in wells being drilled will have on production
and drilling rig utilization, productive capabilities of the Company’s
wells, future demand for oil and natural gas, future drilling rig
utilization and dayrates, projected growth of the Company’s oil and
natural gas production, oil and gas reserve information, as well as the
ability to meet its future reserve replacement goals, anticipated gas
gathering and processing rates and throughput volumes, the prospective
capabilities of the reserves associated with the Company’s inventory of
future drilling sites, anticipated oil and natural gas prices, the
number of wells to be drilled by the Company’s oil and natural gas
segment, development, operational, implementation and opportunity risks,
possibility of future growth opportunities, and other factors described
from time to time in the Company’s publicly available SEC reports. The
Company assumes no obligation to update publicly such forward-looking
statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

We report our financial results in accordance with generally accepted
accounting principles (GAAP). We believe certain non-GAAP performance
measures provide users of our financial information and our management
additional meaningful information to evaluate the performance of our
company.

Unit Corporation
Unaudited Reconciliation of PV-10 to
Standard Measure

December 31, 2009

PV-10 is the estimated future net cash flows from proved reserves
discounted at an annual rate of 10 percent before giving effect to
income taxes. Standardized Measure is the after-tax estimated future
cash flows from proved reserves discounted at an annual rate of 10
percent, determined in accordance with GAAP. The company uses PV-10 as
one measure of the value of its proved reserves and to compare relative
values of proved reserves among exploration and production companies
without regard to income taxes. The company believes that securities
analysts and rating agencies use PV-10 in similar ways. The company’s
management believes PV-10 is a useful measure for comparison of proved
reserve values among companies because, unlike Standardized Measure, it
excludes future income taxes that often depend principally on the
characteristics of the owner of the reserves rather than on the nature,
location and quality of the reserves themselves. Below is a
reconciliation of PV-10 to Standardized Measure:

2009
($ in billions)
PV-10 at December 31, 2009 $ 0.8
Discounted effect of income taxes (0.3 )
Standardized Measure at December 31, 2009 $ 0.5

Unit Corporation
David T. Merrill, 918-493-7700
Chief
Financial Officer & Treasurer