Toreador Increases 2004 Capital Spending Budget, Updates Operational Activities; Management Makes Presentation at IPAA Oil & Gas Investment Symposium April 21

Business Wire,  April 19, 2004  

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Energy Editors/Business Editors

IPAA Oil & Gas Investment Symposium

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 19, 2004

Toreador Resources Corporation (Nasdaq:TRGL)(TSX:TRX) will discuss highlights of its 2004 operations plan during its presentation April 21 at the Independent Petroleum Association of America's Oil & Gas Symposium in New York.

G. Thomas Graves III, Toreador President and Chief Executive Officer, Douglas W. Weir, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Michael J. FitzGerald, Senior Vice President - Exploration and Production, will provide an update of Toreador's 2004 activities, which will primarily focus on work in exploration and development projects in Turkey and France.

As previously reported, Toreador's sale of its U.S. mineral and royalty assets in January 2004 for approximately $45.0 million allows the company to accelerate its international activities.

Toreador has increased its 2004 budget for capital expenditures from approximately $7.0 million to about $9.0 million due to additional infrastructure costs for its Paris Basin fields in France, spending for development drilling on its U.S. nonoperated working-interest properties and incremental costs for the Ayazli-1 well in the Turkish Black Sea. The company still anticipates the majority of the funds will be allocated to activities in Turkey and France.

Toreador plans to fund its spending primarily with net cash flow from operating activities, which it estimates will be about $6.0 million in 2004, as well as with excess proceeds from its U.S. asset sale and funds procured from drilling partners or external capital sources.

"Our exploration and development activities in France this year alone could add as much as five million barrels to proved reserves, a 35% increase over total company reserve levels at January 1, 2004," said Graves. "Our exploration program in France and Turkey includes attractive prospects that will provide significant upside potential if our exploratory drilling is successful."

As previously reported, Toreador believes its 2004 exploitation work in France alone will enable it to replace the daily production of approximately 675 barrels of oil per day (BOPD) related to the sale of its domestic mineral and royalty portfolio in January 2004 by the beginning of 2005. Since January 1, 2004, the company's extensive rehabilitation program in France has increased production about 200 BOPD, bringing current production to 1,800 BOPD.

Toreador's IPAA presentation will be archived on the company's web site, www.toreador.net. A copy of the presentation may be requested by calling the company toll-free at 1-800-966-2141.

Turkey

Toreador's first exploratory well in the western Black Sea, the Ayazli-1, will be spudded in July 2004 in water depths of approximately 250 feet. The company has selected the Ayazli prospect from among six distinct gas prospects identified to date and estimates drilling costs will be about $4.5 million. It is expected that a second wildcat well will be drilled in 2005. Per-prospect reserve potential in this frontier area ranges from 100 billion cubic feet to 1 trillion cubic feet of gas.

The primary objective of the Ayazli-1 well is a Tertiary gas sand that tested 3.7 million cubic feet per day in a nearby well. The secondary objective is a Mesozoic oil zone that was indicated on logs in the same well. Toreador tentatively estimates that drilling and development costs to fully exploit the Ayazli prospect will be about $80-$100 million.

The Turkish national oil company, TPAO, will be carried on the Ayazli-1 well and has an option to participate in additional wells on Toreador's Black Sea prospects for a 51% working interest. Toreador is the operator of and holds a 49% working interest in eight Black Sea permits that comprise about 960,000 acres.

TPAO also plans to drill the Cendere-20 development well in the second quarter of 2004. The Cendere Field, where Toreador holds a 19.6% working interest in most wells, is located in south central Turkey.

Toreador is continuing to negotiate for a rig to drill an exploratory oil well in 2004 on its Calgan permit south of the Zeynel Field, also in south central Turkey. The company estimates the Calgan well will test a 5-10 million barrel prospect. Toreador has a 100% interest in the Calgan permit and is negotiating with a potential partner to participate in the prospect. Drilling of another prospect east of Calgan depends on the initial drilling success encountered on the Calgan permit.

France

In 2004, Toreador has undertaken a $5-$6 million exploration and development program in France that should effectively recoup the daily production from the sale of its U.S. mineral and royalty assets in January 2004 and increase proved reserves.

The company is in the midst of an extensive rehabilitation project in the four-field Neocomian complex, which includes the drilling of multiple sidetrack and development wells. It also includes a multi-well workover program, which is about 50% complete. The company also anticipates drilling a multi-zone horizontal development well in the Charmottes Field. A successful horizontal well in the Charmottes Field would confirm three additional locations for similar wells. Toreador is the operator and 100% owner of the Neocomian and Charmottes fields.