(Source: MARKETWIRE)Nexen continues to make significant progress on its substantial Horn River shale gas position in north-east British Columbia following the conclusion of a recent three-well drilling and completion program. With five shale gas wells now on-stream, we are producing between 15-20 mmcf/d with the majority of production coming from the three new wells. These wells have a higher frac density than our earlier wells. Our land position here could support 500 to 700 wells.

Substantial cost savings and productivity improvements were realized with this drilling and completion program. We took advantage of improved equipment utilization, drilled longer wells, initiated more fracs per well and maintained an industry-leading frac pace of 26 fracs in 15 days while achieving a 100% success rate on our frac program. Two of the wells were completed with eight fracs, while the third well was completed with ten fracs.

"We are making excellent progress in reducing costs and increasing well productivity on our Horn River shale gas acreage with more upside still to come," commented Marvin Romanow, Nexen's President and Chief Executive Officer. "We are currently in the process of developing a winter drilling program that will continue to advance our understanding of this resource and allow us to make more progress on costs and well productivity. We view the Horn River basin as one of the largest and most prolific shale gas plays on the continent - an observation with which many others agree."

We have approximately 88,000 acres in the Dilly Creek area of the Horn River basin with a 100% working interest. We estimate our lands contain between 3 and 6 trillion cubic feet (0.5 to 1.0 billion barrels of oil equivalent) of contingent recoverable resource which could double our existing total proved reserves. Further appraisal activity is required before these estimates can be finalized and commerciality established.

Nexen Inc. is an independent, Canadian-based global energy company, listed on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges under the symbol NXY. We are uniquely positioned for growth in the North Sea, Western Canada (including the Athabasca oil sands of Alberta and unconventional gas resource plays such as coalbed methane and shale gas), deep-water Gulf of Mexico, offshore West Africa and the Middle East. We add value for shareholders through successful full-cycle oil and gas exploration and development and leadership in ethics, integrity, governance and environmental protection.

Information on our previously announced contingent recoverable shale gas resource was provided in our press release dated April 22, 2008. Information with respect to forward-looking statements and cautionary notes is set out below.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements in this report constitute "forward-looking statements" (within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, Section 21E of the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and Section 27A of the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended) or "forward-looking information" (within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation). Such statements or information ("forward-looking statements") are generally identifiable by the terminology used such as "anticipate", "believe", "intend", "plan", "expect", "estimate", "budget", "outlook" or other similar words and include statements relating to or associated with individual wells, regions or projects.