Hess Corporation Issues Letter To Shareholders

Hess Corporation (NYSE: HES) (“Hess”) today issued the following letter to all Hess shareholders in connection with the Company’s multi-year transformation to a pure play exploration and production (“E&P”) company and its 2013 Annual Meeting scheduled to be held on May 16, 2013.

For information about Hess’ transformation and the 2013 Annual Meeting, please visit: www.transforminghess.com.

The text of the March 4 letter follows:

Dear Fellow Shareholder:

The 2013 Annual Meeting will be important for Hess and all our shareholders.

Your Board and management have been transforming Hess into a more focused, pure play exploration and production (“E&P”) company. The strategy has been working well, creating near term value and positioning us to drive returns over the long term.

Indeed, now more than halfway through our transformation, the market has been recognizing our progress. Hess shares significantly outperformed the peer index, rising from $43.93 to $58.90 per share, an increase of 34% in the period between our mid-year strategy update on July 25, 2012 and the January 28, 2013 announcement of our planned terminals sale. On Friday, March 1, our shares closed at $66.54 per share. Operating performance has also been strong. 2012 cash flow from operations was the highest in our 80 year history and 2012 net income was our third highest.

BECOMING A PURE PLAY E&P COMPANY

This morning we announced actions that represent the culmination of our multi-year transformation into a pure play E&P company. The transformed Hess will have a focused portfolio of higher growth, lower risk, oil linked E&P assets that we anticipate will deliver a five year compound average annual production growth rate (“CAGR”) of 5 to 8%, based off of pro forma 2012 production, with aggregate mid-teens production growth between pro forma 2012 and 2014, while increasing returns to all shareholders. Specific announcements today include:

• Fully exiting our downstream businesses, including retail, energy marketing, and energy trading
• Further focusing our E&P portfolio by divesting Indonesia and Thailand
• Pursuing monetization of Bakken midstream assets, expected in 2015
• Returning capital directly to shareholders through an increase in the annual dividend to $1.00 per share commencing in the third quarter of 2013 and a share repurchase program authorization of up to $4 billion, with amount and timing tied to proceeds from our asset sale program
• Adding six new world class independent directors with the right mix of corporate leadership, operational and financial expertise, and top level E&P experience

HESS’ 5-YEAR TRANSFORMATION

Starting in 2010, we began taking decisive actions to grow the value of our world class asset base by focusing on the exploration and development of our most promising lower risk, higher growth, oil linked E&P assets.

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