Noble Corporation Names William E. Turcotte Senior Vice President and General Counsel

SUGAR LAND, Texas, Dec. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Noble Corporation
(NYSE: NE) today announced that William E. Turcotte, 45, has been named Senior
Vice President and General Counsel of Noble Corporation, effective
December 16, 2008.

Before joining Noble, Turcotte served as Senior Vice President, General
Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Cornell Companies, Inc. since 2007. Before
joining Cornell, Turcotte was most recently Vice President, Associate General
Counsel and Assistant Secretary of Transocean, Inc., where he worked from 2000
to 2007. Between 1992 and 2000, he served in various legal positions with
Schlumberger Limited in Houston, Caracas and Paris, and prior to 1992,
Turcotte worked as a legal associate in law firms in Mexico City and Houston.

Turcotte holds a bachelor of business administration degree in finance
from Texas A&M University and a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of
Houston Law Center.

Noble is a leading offshore drilling contractor for the oil and gas
industry. Noble performs, through its subsidiaries, contract drilling services
with a fleet of 63 offshore drilling units (including five rigs currently
under construction) located worldwide, including in the Middle East, India,
the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Mexico, the North Sea, Brazil, and West Africa.
Noble’s ordinary shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the
symbol “NE”. Additional information on Noble Corporation is available via the
worldwide web at http://www.noblecorp.com.

SOURCE Noble Corporation