news                                                         UNIT CORPORATION
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        1000 Kensington Tower, 7130 South Lewis Avenue, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74136
                                     Telephone 918 493-7700, Fax 918 493-7714


                               Contact:     Larry D. Pinkston
                                            President, Treasurer
                                              and Chief Financial Officer
                                            (918) 493-7700

For Immediate Release...
December 8, 2003

                 UNIT CORPORATION ANNOUNCES CLOSE OF ACQUISITION

     Tulsa, Oklahoma . . . Unit Corporation (NYSE - UNT) announced today that it
has completed the acquisition of Serdrilco Incorporated and its subsidiary,
Service Drilling Southwest LLC, a U.S. land drilling company located in Borger,
Texas. The total consideration paid by Unit was $35,000,000 in cash. The terms
of the acquisition include an earn-out provision allowing the sellers to obtain
one-half of the cash flow in excess of $10 million for each of the next three
years.
     Serdrilco, a private, Tulsa-based drilling company, has been operating in
the Anadarko Basin in the Texas Panhandle for more than 50 years. All 12 of the
rigs are currently under contract. The rigs range from 650 horsepower to 1,700
horsepower with depth capacities rated from 6,500 feet to 18,000 feet. In
addition to the rigs, Unit will acquire a fleet of 12 trucks that enable the
efficient movement of rigs to new drilling locations and a district office and
equipment yard in and near Borger, Texas.
     Along with an additional rig that was built and recently placed into
service, Unit's rig fleet totals 88 land drilling rigs with the close of this
acquisition. Currently, 83 of those 88 rigs are operating under contract.


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     Unit Corporation is a Tulsa-based, publicly held energy company engaged
through its subsidiaries in oil and gas exploration, production and contract
drilling. Unit's Common Stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the
symbol UNT. For more information about Unit Corporation, visit its website at
http://www.unitcorp.com.



     This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of
the Securities Litigation Reform Act that involve risks and uncertainties,
including future rig utilization and dayrates, the number of wells to be drilled
by the company, development, operational, implementation and opportunity risks,
and other factors described from time to time in the company's publicly
available SEC reports, which could cause actual results to differ materially
from those expected.