Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the first quarter 2008 Whiting Petroleum Corporation Earnings Call, during which Whiting management will also discuss today's announcement of its property acquisition from Chicago Energy. (Operator Instructions). I would now turn the call over to your Mr. John Kelso, Director of Investor Relations. Please proceed, sir.

Thanks, Towanda. Good morning or actually good afternoon and welcome to Whiting Petroleum Corporation's first quarter 2008 earnings conference call. On the call for Whiting this morning is Jim Volker, our President and CEO; Mike Stevens, our CFO; Jim Brown, Senior Vice President; Doug Lang, VP of Acquisitions and Reservoir Engineering; Mark Williams; Vice President of Exploration, Dave Seery, VP of Land; and Bruce DeBoer, Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary. During this call, we will review our results for the first quarter of 2008 and then discuss the outlook for the remainder of the year. This conference call is being recorded and will be available for replay approximately one hour after its completion. Both the conference call with an accompanying slide presentation and our first quarter 2008 earnings release can be found on our website, at www.whiting.com. To access the call and the website, please click on the Investor Relations box on the menu, and then click on the webcast link. Please be advised that our following remarks, including answers to your questions, include statements that we believe to be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to be materially different from those currently anticipated. Those risks include, among others, matters that we have described in our earnings release, as well as in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007, and we disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements. In this call, we use the terms probable and possible reserves, which are unproved reserves that we do not include in our SEC filings. Please refer to the news release or our webcast slides for more information on probable and possible reserves. During this conference call, we will also make references to discretionary cash flow, which is a non-GAAP financial measure. A reconciliation of this non-GAAP measure to the applicable GAAP measure can be found in our earnings release and on our webcast slides. With that, I will turn the call over Jim Volker.

Thank you, John. Ladies and gentlemen, we will try to go through this at a brisk but complete pace here this today, so that we can get to your questions. At the end of this conference call, we will discuss today's announcement of our property acquisition from Chicago Energy Associates. We were very pleased with our first quarter results and our 2008 plans, and we look forward to discussing with you our plans and our results. We will also answer any questions you have following the presentation. I would like to begin by stating that through April, I believe that Whiting team has gone three-for-three at that; first, by starting our organic growth with the drillbit and our CO2 projects. Second, by selling a unique offering, the Whiting USA Trust I, which provided investors the opportunity to participate in strong oil and gas pricing fundamentals through ownership of a net profits interest in the lowest risk form of oil and gas reserves, proved, developed, producing reserves. For Whiting, this offering allowed us to sell 6.9 million BOEs at $31.18 per BOE after our expenses. Third, we have agreed to acquire 115.2 Bcfe of gas reserves in the Flat Rock Field of Uintah County, Utah. This field currently produces 19 million cubic feet of gas a day net to the interest of the acquired and has a potential for substantial reserves and production growth. We believe this to be a world-class gas reservoir. My thanks go out to all Whiting employees for your contributions to this great hitting performance. On my previous comments I think you can see we are especially pleased with the execution of our drilling programs and the implementation and expansion of our two CO2 projects. We continue to generate excellent results from our Bakken drilling program in…

Thanks, Jim. In the first quarter of 2008, we set company records in total revenues, net income, net income per share and discretionary cash flow. Our net income in the first quarter was $62.3 million or $1.47 per basic and diluted share on total revenues of $264.1 million. In the first quarter of 2007, net income totaled $10.7 million or $0.29 per basic and diluted share on total revenues of $159.9 million. Discretionary cash flow in the first quarter of 2008 totaled $161.4 million compared to the $74.1 million reported for the same period last year. The increases in first quarter 2008 net income and discretionary cash flow, compared to the first quarter of last year were primarily the result of a 64% increase in our realized oil price and 25% increase in our realized gas price and a 6% increase in our total equivalent production. During the first quarter, our companywide basis differential for crude oil compared to NYMEX was $8.38 per barrel, which compared to $8.79 per barrel in the first quarter of 2007 and $8.25 per barrel in the fourth quarter of 2007. We expect our oil price differential to remain in the $8 to $8.50 range in 2008. During the first quarter, our companywide basis differential for natural gas compared to NYMEX was $0.14 per Mcf, which compared to $0.44 per Mcf during the first quarter of last year and $0.60 per Mcf in the fourth quarter of last year. We expect our gas price differential to be in the range of $0.30 to $0.50 during the rest of 2008. Production in the first quarter of 2008 totaled 3.74 million barrels of oil equivalent, of which 69% was crude oil and 31% was natural gas. This first quarter 2008 production total equates to an average production…

Thank you, Mike. I would now like to quickly review the key points in the slides of our webcast, which we hope will provide some more color on our primary operating areas. First, of course, please take special note of our statement of disclosure, reserve information and non-GAAP measures, especially risk factors contained therein. Go into page 2, please note that our market cap is currently up to $3.2 billion, and at the bottom, our net production is 41,800 BOEs per day in March. The great news on slide 3 is shown the left-hand column there, $62.3 million of net income, $1.47 a share and $161 million of discretionary cash flow, all up smartly from the year ago period. As you can see, on page 4, that is $1.47 per share. On page 5, $161.4 million of discretionary cash flow. On page 6; I would just like to call your attention to the far right-hand column of the table there and say that in each of our regions, wherein we are now producing 41,800 BOEs per day, they are all up somewhat from the 40,300 barrels in December of 2007. Moving on to page 7; I think the most important point here are points A and B, that is we are experiencing, I would say beginning to experience moderate risk organic growth from Postle and North Ward Ester and some significant organic growth potential from our drilling programs in the Williston, the Piceance and not the Uinta Basin. On page 8, we continue to apply our acquired, exploit, explore and from time-to-time monetization of some PDP reserves, just as we did through the trust. On page 9, I call your attention to the second column from the right, Here our SEC PV10 value of $5.8 billion at year end. And…

(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from the line of Nicholas Pope with JPMorgan. Please proceed.

Hey, guys.

Hi, Nick.

I was hoping to if you could tell us how much those, the Bakken oil, the recent Bakken oils cost, specifically the, I think those two new ones there, the tri-lateral and the single-lateral?

$6 million.

$6 million. All right. And then jumping into this, the Uinta properties, of those 59 wells, how many of those are booked as PUDs?

14

14?

14m 11 would be probables and 34 would be classed as possibles.

Okay. You have, are you all ready to talk about how much these wells could cost and what kind of reserves you are talking about for the Entrada wells?

Yes, we think verticals wells are cost somewhere around $4.2 million per vertical well. We drilled some of them directionally, somewhere around 4.9 to 5.3 Nick, at an average of about $4.35 million for all 59 wells. With respect to the average reserves, at least with respect to the PUDs we would estimate about 10 Bcf per well and we think we have about an average 78% to 79% working interest in those. As to the probables, where we think we will have 37.5% working interest on average. We think those may have about 12 Bcf and I might say that is based upon some independent engineering that was done on those probables and then also based upon some independent engineering of the possibles we guesstimated about 17 Bcf per well. The reason for that is basically a thickening of the zone in that direction. And then, we think we have about 44.8% average working interest in those 34 possible wells.

Okay. That is great. And then, I was wondering, have you all thought about 2009 production you had at this point. I mean it looks, there are a lot of growth areas coming here now, have you all thought about what kind of growth rate you all might be thinking about for 2009 at this point.

Obviously we have thought about it Nick. We are just not quite ready to hatch that egg yet.

Okay. I thought that. Thanks a lot guys.

All the best.

Your next question comes from the line of Robert Lynd with Simmons and Co. Please proceed.

Good afternoon.

Hi, Robert.

Jim, back to the Sanish field, is the decision to do a tri-lateral being made on the fly based on what you are encountering, as you drill?

No that one was designed as a tri-lateral. There were some specific reasons for that, having to with, what I would call some science work we wanted to do on that well. I would say that the decision has been made that unless conditions change going forward, virtually all the wells you see us drill will be single-laterals over 1280s. And we intend to drill just as that plan and the slide shows two single-laterals within each 1280. And then perhaps come back in-field in that spaced between the 1280 units. That gets us up to the 230 locations.

Okay. So just modeling the program $6 million well cost is sort of what we should see it as?

Yes.

Okay. Thanks, that is all I have. I will get back in the queue.

Great.

Your next question comes from the line of Duane Grubert with CRT Capital. Please proceed.

Yes, Jim when you described your acquisition as being a world class reservoir. Can you elaborate a little bit on what you really like about it, and how you cost? You are thinking about your Uinta program versus your Piceance program going forward?

Mark's been hoping that you would ask that question Duane. So I am going to let him answer that one. Thank you for asking.

The Entrada reservoir here has a few different characteristics than most of the Uinta Basin production, which is typically the Mesaverde or the Wasatch. It's a deeper reservoir, it's older in age, it has far better reservoir quality. The velocity typically is 12% with relatively high permeability and low water saturation. But importantly, it has a very high net to gross. It has up to 200 feet of gross interval. But within those 200 feet, up to 140 feet of it is net pay. So, the sands are clean, very continuous over a broad area. It's an Aeolian reservoir similar to the Navajo Formation or the Minnelusa in the Powder River basin. That is really what accounts for better reservoir characteristics. So, it's very resolvable with 3D seismic, and we study that very carefully and feel like we understand both the size and the character of the reservoir pretty well.

Okay. And then, the nature or part of your development wells in the Entrada being possible, what's your chief certainty at this point?

This is Doug. Really our reserve specification is strictly due to SPE. So, we have our PUDs, which are direct offsets to production, and then we have our probables or one more location way, and then, all the rest by definition or possibles. But they are geologically an extension of the field to the north. So, until we step our way out there, they will have to be possible.

Okay, great. That is very encouraging. Jim, if you could maybe walk through how you think about the Piceance versus the Uinta going forward?

I guess, let us say, to put it back in baseball metaphor that I used earlier, I think about the Piceance essentially as being hitting some good doubles, and I see potentially anyway this reservoir in the Uinta, not all reservoirs in the Uinta, but this particular Entrada reservoir is potentially, frankly, being a homerun for us.

Okay. That is real helpful. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Wayne Andrews with Raymond James. Please proceed.

Good afternoon, Jim, gentlemen.

Hi, Wayne.

Maybe you can comment a little bit, Jim, on what other spending, I noticed you increased the budget at North Ward Estes, and maybe could you be more specific on what sort of construction and projects you are adding to increase that budget there?

Okay. Well, about $88 million out of that $100 million is represented by roughly $47 million of that's coming from acceleration of Phase II, because frankly things are going very well, and about $41 million is just purchasing CO2 at a somewhat faster rate.

Very good said. And what signs are you seeing there other than the reserve growth -- I'm sorry -- the production growth looks pretty outstanding, so you'd expect those fields to be continuing to rise in volumes through the remainder of the year?

We do. We are pleased with the rate at which the reservoir seems to be processing the CO2. In part, it may be going faster for us than it did on the pilot that the major oil company did there, because our team up there made special effort to really clean out both the producers as well as the injectors there. Also, we made special efforts to make sure that our water injection system puts in good, clean water. So that may be some of the reason for the somewhat faster processing that we are seeing. We are not quite ready yet to yell "Eureka!" but we'd like to watch if for most of this year. But anyway, we are positive enough about it that we are going to do this acceleration.

Excellent, sounds very encouraging. If I look at that, I mean that is a substantial part of your volumes that will be accelerating, and then kind of walk through some of the math on your drilling efforts in the Bakken, and add in a Boies Ranch pipeline coming on in June, I get to numbers that are little bit higher than your guidance. Maybe comment on your thoughts if there is potentially any upside there in the remainder of the year?

Yes. I noticed that you did not say we were sandbagging, but Jack did.

Well, I think we are all coming at the same conclusion.

Anyway, we are just trying to be conservative here. If we were maybe another 90 days down the road, we'd be a little bit more optimistic and be a little quicker to raise our guidance for the rest of the year. So, I just ask your forbearance here for this particular quarter, let us skid about 90 days down the road.

We will be looking forward to hearing from you again soon. Thanks, Jim.

Thank you.

The next question comes from the line of Biju Perincheril with Jefferies & Company. Please proceed. Biju Perincheril - Jefferies & Company: Hi, good afternoon. Congratulations on a very good quarter.

Thank you, Biju. Biju Perincheril - Jefferies & Company: In the Bakken, we have seen some increased permitting activities into the play to the north, are you looking to pick up any acreage additional acreage that way or are you quite happy with what you have for now?

Well, we would like to acquire more acreage, obviously, as the land grab is done out there, and at this point we have to buy somebody else out. As we look around our acreage, we would not want to go too far east of Parshall. North still looks good for us, although, I think everybody is aware that the wells to the north aren't quite as prolific as the ones that we and EOG have drilled. What I would call the sweet spot here of the Bakken, was naturally outlined by their acreage position and our acreage position. We are encouraged Biju by the fact that based upon the drilling that's been done by others in our acreage position that everything that we have, that's as our acreage goes appears to be productive to us and our permit well also. To the south fewer wells have been drilled as you know, that abuts against a reservation down there and of course the lake. So we do not know as much as that going south. We do know that another company, another large, and sophisticated producer did take a deal down there on the reservation and left down there. Biju Perincheril - Jefferies & Company: Okay. Going back to the acquisition you talked about 59 wells to be drilled. Can you give us some timing on that?

Sure. Doug, will do that for you here.

Its early in the development here it will be subject somewhat to our plans and the other operator in the field. The way we sort of engineered it, it takes about seven years to get all these wells drilled. I really believe it will be compressed into a shorter timeframe. Biju Perincheril - Jefferies & Company: Okay. What will be the timing for converting some of the other probables and possibles. I would imagine initially you will be drilling up the PUD locations or…

Right. As I said before there are 14 PUDs and basically we have those being drilled now with a few in '08, about eight in '09 and about four in 2010. Then just logically the locations switch to the probable category. We got 11 of those currently in the schedule and those would occur in 2010. And then the remaining 34 possibles gets spread out sort of from the last half of 2010, all the way through first part of 2014. Biju Perincheril - Jefferies & Company: Okay, perfect. What do you think your CapEx will be on this property this year, once the transaction is complete?

Well, as Doug was saying we scheduled only a couple of wells, operated wells this year in round numbers those would be about $8.7 million to $9 million. Biju Perincheril - Jefferies & Company: Okay.

However, we are cautioning ourselves here to the fact that, on the jointly owned acreage where we own about 37.5% -- let me just kind of run through that acreage for you after I make this point. We expect the operator of that acreage, which is a large sort of E&P/utility company based here in the west with what we consider to be a very professional and highly confident personnel who are going to get drafted out there. And so we realized that some of this CapEx maybe accelerated forward. Then to answer the question I posed myself about the acreage. In summary, we have about 5,109 gross acres where Whiting has 100% working interest. Well, that is obviously 5,109 net working interest acres. We have got about 640 acres where our working interest would be 50%, well that’s 320 net acres and then we have 16,280 gross acres on which we have 37.5% working interest or 6,105 net. When you add up the grosses you get the 22,029 and the net is 11,534. Biju Perincheril - Jefferies & Company: Perfect. Thank you.

You are welcome.

Your next question comes from the line of Eric Hagen with Merrill Lynch. Please proceed.

Hi, good afternoon.

Hi, Eric.

Another question regarding Uinta Basin. Is there any need for an EIS, are there any drilling restrictions out there?

No. None at this time.

Great. The second was just a little bit of housekeeping. So on the second quarter, the deferred, I missed that, the deferred gain is $120 million, was that right or $112 million?

$112.4 million.

And that's about $3 million a quarter?

Yes, roughly. That goes up to about little over $4 million a quarter after the second quarter because we only have it after months in the second quarter.

Okay. In terms of any cash tax impacts, should we model a higher cash tax rate in that quarter?

No. Right around 37% net effective tax rate.

Great. And in plans for 2009 in the Bakken still around nine rigs to be…

Absolutely.

Okay, good. That is all I had. Great quarter, thanks.

Thank you, Eric.

Your next question comes from the line of Jack Aydin with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Please proceed.

Hi, Jim. I knew I will get your attention.

Hi, sandbag. How are you doing?

Hi, how are you?

Good.

Most of the questions are answered, but I know you are drilling a well next to the EOG Austin well and you are hoping to get some results soon. Where we stand on that well?

Just getting ready to complete it, I do not have a rate for you yet, Jack. But the thing drilled like a charm and we had great shows where we were drilling.

And that's on 12,080 acres of 640 acres?

640.

640 and single lateral?

Yes, sir.

And still the cost about $6 million.

Yes, little less.

Okay. Thanks a lot.

Thank you, Jack.

Thanks.

And your next question comes from the line of Jeff Robertson with Lehman Brothers. Please proceed.

Thanks Jim. On the Uinta Basin acquisition, are there any other formations in that area that are perspective?

Yes, there are, and we will talk about them here. I will let Mark talk about that.

There are other formations that are both productive already, the Navajo produces, the Wingate produces, the Dakota and the Wasatch also produce. But all of those formations are somewhat overshadowed by the Entrada Reservoir here. But we have continued development activity in all of those other formations.

Are the Navajo and the Wingate below the Entrada or above it?

The Navajo is below and so is the Wingate.

Okay. I mean what depth are those?

They are at 12,500 feet at Wingate.

Okay. And what kind of BTU gases does this field produce out of the Entrada?

1,030.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, Jeff

Your next question comes from the line of John Ragozzino with Wachovia.

Hi. It is actually Dave Tameron.

Hi, Dave.

Hi. How are you doing?

Great.

Get back to the acquisition, and maybe you mentioned I apologize if I missed it, but what are these wells costing?

Well, these wells have cost, round numbers, of about $4.35 million per well. We sort of give you a range here of about $4.2 million to $4.5 million for a vertical well, $4.9 million to $5.3 million for a directional well, and the average across the all 59 wells is about $4.35 million.

Okay. When you say directional, can you give me a little more detail on that?

Sure. This is Jim Brown. Some of the topography out there is pretty rough. So you just can not locate your service location where you want it. You just have to directionally drill them to get into the appropriate bottom of the location.

Okay. And of the production right now, the 19 million a day, how much is coming from the Entrada versus the Wasatch and the Dakota?

97%.

That is right there on the slide, I guess I can not read the bullet point. The other question you mentioned in the press release, you mentioned of the 59 additional wells to be drilled, 44 are going to be by the outside operator?

Right.

And who is the operator?

Well, it is a very large sophisticated energy company, headquartered in the west here. It is a combination of the utility and E&P company.

So, it's the same answer you gave before this one. You just won't commit the name.

Yes, you could probably look around; I will give me hint at that. Salt Lake could be a good place to look for that.

Okay. That's what I thought. I just want to confirm that.

All right.

I guess, that's all I got. Thanks.

All the best.

Your next question is a follow-up from the line Eric Hagen with Merrill Lynch.

Just to clear one thing, about the gas volumes were down sequentially, is that just because you are ready to hook up those wells in the Piceance with just natural declines.

Yes.

Okay. Great, thank you.

Thanks.

And at this time, there are no additional questions in queue. I would now turn the call back over to management for the final remarks.

Great. Thank you, Ms. Ricks and, I would like to underscore the excitement that all of us at Whiting are feeling about executing on our Bakken, Piceance and now our Uinta drilling, as well as our Postle in North Ward Estes CO2 projects in 2008. We truly believe 2008 maybe a breakout year for organic production and reserve growth of Whiting. I would like to mention several events that Whiting will be participating in where we hope we have the opportunity to meet with you personally. We will be presenting at the Tristone Capital Global Forum in Paris, France, and we will be speaking at 11:35 am Paris time on Thursday, May 15. That will be about 5:35 am New York time, but the presentation will be available on our website live and on replay. We will also present at the RBC Capital Markets Energy Conference at the Ritz-Carlton Battery Park at 9:05 am on East Coast time on Monday, June 2. We will also be presenting at the Tristone Capital Rocky Mountain Energy Forum at the Brown Palace hotel here in Denver in the week of June 9 and at the COGA Rocky Mountain Natural Gas Strategy Conference and Investment Forum at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, the week of July 9. And we look forward again to seeing you at those events. I would like to thank al of you on this call for your new or continuing interest in Whiting Petroleum Corporation. I want to express my personal thanks to all of Whiting's employees and our Directors for their contributions to Whiting's success and our plans for significant growth in 2008, especially by going three-for-three at that through April of this year by starting our organic growth of the drill bit and CO2 production increases, structuring and selling the unique Whiting USA Trust I and by agreeing to acquire the Flat Rock field with its production of 19 million cubic feet of gas per day, its reserves of 115 BCF and its potential for growth in reserves and production. Again, all the best and we look forward to seeing and speaking with you soon.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you joining in today's conference. This concludes the presentation. You may now disconnect. Please have a wonderful day.