James A. Middleton Appointed Director of Monterey Resources

Business Wire, July 16, 1997

BAKERSFIELD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 16, 1997--Monterey Resources (NYSE:MRC) Wednesday announced that James A. Middleton has been appointed to its board of directors, filling the vacancy created by the resignation of Hugh L. Boyt.

Middleton, 61, is retired executive vice president and director of ARCO, the California-based, fully integrated energy company. At ARCO, he had more than 35 years of engineering and executive management experience that included the presidencies of both ARCO Oil and Gas Co. and ARCO Coal Co.

He currently is chairman and CEO of Crown Energy Co., a Utah-based company that extracts asphalt from tar sands. Middleton holds a bachelor of arts degree, plus a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Rice University, and he serves as a director of Texas Utilities Co. and ARCO Chemical Co.

Middleton has been active in a number of professional and community organizations, including the President's Circle of the National Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Medicine, as well as the Western States Petroleum Association and the American Petroleum Institute.

He served as a director of the National Center for Policy Analysis, executive committee member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, and was a member of the Dallas Roundtable of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Monterey Resources is an independent oil and gas company engaged in the production, development and acquisition of oil and natural gas in the State of California. The company conducted its operations as the Western Division of Santa Fe Energy Resources (NYSE:SFR) until the November 1996 IPO of its common stock.

SFR currently owns approximately 83 percent of the outstanding shares of MRC and has recently announced its decision to spin off those shares in a tax-free distribution to SFR shareholders in July 1997. The common stock of Monterey Resources is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MRC.

CONTACT: Monterey Resources Inc., Bakersfield

C. Ed Hall, 805/322-3992