Whiting Petroluem

Risk Analysis

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Presented by:

CMRC Consulting

Table of Contents

Section Page

Executive Summary

Service Team

Consulting Questionnaire

Sources

Appendix

Executive Summary

Thank you for contacting CMRC Consulting for a Risk Analysis for Whiting

Petroleum. We welcome the opportunities to discuss our qualifications.

It is our goal to provide Whiting Petroleum with answers to the issues outlined in the

group assignment. In providing a risk analysis for Whiting Petroleum, we gathered and

analyzed information from internal sources such as SEC form 10-K, annual report, press

releases, and web page and external sources such as the Wall Street Journal, the Energy

Information Administration, Forbes, and other articles on oil industry trends.

In analyzing Whiting Petroleum, we view the biggest potential risks to be the changing price

of oil, the ability to successfully acquire and integrate new reserves, and

We look forward to meeting with you on Tuesday, February 14, 2006.

Service Team

Melissa Medina

Senior Vice President

Christina Grabowski

Managing Director

Chivonne Mathews

Senior Client Executive

Ryoko Miyanaga

Senior Client Advisor

Whiting Petroleum

Risk Analysis

Two Greatest Strategic Risks

Whiting PetroleumÐŽ¦s strategic risks stem from its growth strategy and the market

that it competes in. Before analyzing its strategic risks, we must first fully understand its corporate strategy. Whiting PetroleumÐŽ¦s corporate goal is focused on growth by increasing reserves and production per share. This goal is accomplished through a strategy of complimentary acquisitions, efficiently exploiting undeveloped oil and natural gas reserves, and drilling a number of exploratory wells in core regions (home, Whiting Petroleum web page).

Whiting Petroleum has the greatest strategic risk in being able to handle the

uncertainties of its current acquisitions while moving forward to explore future

acquisitions in a continually changing environment. The factors that increase the risk

of this aggressive acquisition strategy include:

„X Inaccuracies of reserve estimates and the assumptions underlying these estimates

„X Ability to integrate acquired business and properties

„X Timing of acquisitions

„X Underperformance of acquired properties

„X Unforeseen additional expenses needed to operate acquired reserves

„X Liabilities carried over from previous management

These factors need to be considered by Whiting Petroleum before acquiring a property.

Whiting Petroleum looks at the upside of speculative risk when purchasing reserves. The

upside risk is that the reserves will provide profit and add to shareholder value. The factors

listed above create a major strategic risk for Whiting Petroleum. Any one of these factors can

turn an acquisition into a loss. A combination of these factors can increase the severity of the

loss from an acquisition.

The second greatest strategic risk deals with the products that Whiting Petroleum

produces. The company owns and operates oil and gas properties. This company is

simply an energy company with all revenue relying on its ability to produce oil and

gas. With oil consumption increasing at a faster rate than production, the price of oil

continuously increases and oil companies are experiencing increased profit margins (main

page, Gibson Consulting website).

Petroleum can rake in big profits over the next few years, but there is concern

over the demand for oil in the long-run. The increased prices of gas and oil bring

consumer anger and political interference. It is seems inevitable that in the coming

years, there will be a switch to alternative energy sources such as cellulosic ethanol.

Hybrid vehicles are a preview of how the future of motor vehicles are going to run. The demand for other energy sources is going to increase, as consumers get tired of the high prices of gas and oil. Car manufactures are increasingly experimenting with alternatives to oil. The U.S. government is also favoring alternative fuels. In the State of the Union address on Tuesday, January 31, 2006, President Bush said energy made from ÐŽ§wood chips, stalks or switch grassЎЁ could