Penn West Exploration Announces its Financial Results for the Second Quarter Ended June 30, 2012

Penn West Exploration Announces its Financial Results for the Second Quarter Ended June 30, 2012 PR Newswire CALGARY, Alberta, August 10, 2012 CALGARY, Alberta, August 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- PENN WEST PETROLEUM LTD. (TSX: PWT) (NYSE: PWE)("PENN WEST") is pleased to announce its results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2012 The broad deployment of horizontal multi-stage fracture technology into primary development, secondary recovery, and exploration gives Penn West one of the largest inventories of low-risk light-oil projects in North America. Through active portfolio management, we continue to position the company to drive this asset base forward. We anticipate Canadian crude oil prices strengthening over the next 12 months as slow and steady demand increases are amplified by improvements in North American pipeline infrastructure pushing Canadian crude into closer alignment with world oil pricing. Capital programs during the first half of 2012 continued the evolution of Penn West into a leading light-oil exploration and development company. At the beginning of 2010, less than two percent of production came from horizontal wells while our base vertical wells accounted for 98 percent of our production. We anticipate that by the end of this year, 30 percent of Penn West's production will come from multi-stage fracture wells. HIGHLIGHTS [1]Average production in the second quarter of 2012 was 163,181 boe per day compared to 156,107 in the second quarter of 2011.