HOUSTON, May 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Harvest Natural Resources, Inc. (NYSE: HNR) today announced it entered into an area of mutual interest (AMI) with a private company to explore and develop oil and natural gas along the Texas and Louisiana Upper Gulf Coast. The AMI, including state waters, stretches from Nueces County, Texas to Cameron Parish, Louisiana and includes approximately 40 counties. Harvest will fund the first $20 million of new lease acquisitions, G&G studies, seismic reprocessing and drilling costs. Harvest has a 55 percent operated interest within the AMI and will provide drilling, engineering and operational expertise. The private company has contributed two prospects, including the leases and proprietary 3-D data sets, and numerous leads generated over the last three decades of regional geological focus.

The AMI was developed to explore for natural gas including the deeper Frio, Vicksburg and Yegua plays using the private company's regional knowledge and ongoing prospect generation capability followed by extensive prospect review by Harvest and Fusion Geophysical L.L.C.'s technical geophysical staff.

Harvest President and Chief executive Officer, James A. Edmiston, said, "The identified prospects in the AMI provide Harvest with exposure to near-term exploration drilling and a chain of follow -- on potential opportunities for the exploration of natural gas including deeper plays in the U.S. Gulf Coast. The program exposes Harvest to significant near-term value potential and diversification due to the strong U.S. natural gas market and short cycle time from discovery to production, relative to our international operations. The first prospect is located in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana where an exploration well will be drilled beginning early in the third quarter of this year. The second prospect area is in a transition zone where multiple leads with significant resource potential have been identified."

Edmiston continued, "Our private company partners have a track record that is second to none in the Texas Gulf Coast and East Texas area. Their geological team includes John Amoruso, Denny Bartell and Larry Bartell. This team's most recent discovery is the giant Amoruso field (Deep Bossier, East Texas), discovered in 2005, which is viewed by many in the industry as one of the most significant onshore natural gas discoveries in the continental United States in the past decade or more. We at Harvest are extremely pleased to be working alongside such an accomplished and seasoned team of explorers."

Harvest Natural Resources

Harvest Natural Resources, Inc. headquartered in Houston, Texas, is an independent energy company with principal operations in Venezuela, exploration assets in the United States, Indonesia, Gabon and China and business development offices in Singapore and the United Kingdom. For more information visit the Company's website at http://www.harvestnr.com.

"This press release may contain projections and other 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. They include estimates and timing of expected oil and gas production, oil and gas reserve projections of future oil pricing, future expenses, planned capital expenditures, anticipated cash flow and our business strategy. All statements other than statements of historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements. Although Harvest believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to have been correct. Actual results may differ materially from Harvest's expectations as a result of factors discussed in Harvest's 2007 Annual Report on Form 10-K and other public filings."

SOURCE Harvest Natural Resources, Inc.