Hanover Compressor Announces Election of Stephen M. Pazuk and Margaret K. Dorman to Its Board of Directors

February 4, 2004

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 4, 2004--Hanover Compressor Company (NYSE:HC), a global market leader in full service natural gas compression and a leading provider of service, fabrication and equipment for oil and natural gas processing and transportation applications, announced today that Stephen M. Pazuk and Margaret K. Dorman have been elected to its board of directors.

In June 2000, following a career of more than thirty years, Mr. Pazuk retired as senior vice president, treasurer and partner of Wellington Management Company, LLP, one of America's oldest and largest independent investment management firms with control of over $390 billion of discretionary client assets. Since his retirement, Mr. Pazuk has been involved in real estate development in Boston, and in venture capital investments. Mr. Pazuk serves on the boards of several privately-held companies.

Ms. Dorman is senior vice president, chief financial officer, and treasurer of Smith International Inc., a Fortune 500 oilfield services company. Prior to joining Smith International, Ms. Dorman served as corporate controller of Landmark Graphics Corporation, a provider of seismic interpretation software to the upstream oil and gas industry, and as a senior audit manager at Ernst & Young LLP.

"Hanover is extremely pleased to welcome two highly skilled individuals to our board," said Victor E. Grijalva, chairman of Hanover's board of directors. "Margaret's wealth of financial expertise and detailed knowledge of the oilfield services industry will be extremely valuable to Hanover. We are also delighted to add Steve, whose invaluable experience at such a large and distinguished firm will add depth and breadth to the financial acumen of the board. We look forward to the tremendous benefits of their knowledge and insight."

The additions of Mr. Pazuk and Ms. Dorman to Hanover's board of directors are the result of the company's efforts to work directly with large shareholders and class counsel to elect two new independent board members as contemplated in the previously announced shareholder litigation settlement. With these elections, Hanover's board of directors now totals nine members.

About Hanover Compressor

Hanover Compressor Company (www.hanover-co.com) is a global market leader in full service natural gas compression and a leading provider of service, fabrication and equipment for oil and natural gas processing and transportation applications. Hanover sells and provides this equipment on a rental, contract compression, maintenance and acquisition leaseback basis to oil and natural gas production, processing and transportation companies that are increasingly seeking outsourcing solutions. Founded in 1990 and a public company since 1997, Hanover's customers include both major and premier independent producers as well as national oil companies.

Certain matters discussed in this document are "forward-looking statements" intended to qualify for the safe harbors established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements can generally be identified as such because of the context of the statement or because the statement includes words such as "believes," "anticipates," "expects," "estimates," or words of similar import. Similarly, statements that describe Hanover's future plans, objectives or goals or future revenues or other financial measures are also forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those anticipated as of the date the statements were made. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: our inability to renew our short-term leases of equipment with our customers so as to fully recoup our cost of the equipment; reduced profit margins or the loss of market share resulting from competition or the introduction of competing technologies by other companies; legislative changes or changes in economic or political conditions in the countries in which we do business; the inherent risks associated with our operations, such as equipment defects, malfunctions and failures and natural disasters; governmental safety, health, environmental and other regulations, which could require us to make significant expenditures; our inability to implement certain business objectives such as integrating acquired businesses, implementing our new enterprise resource planning systems, generating sufficient cash, accessing capital markets, refinancing existing or incurring additional indebtedness to fund our business, executing our exit and sale strategy with respect to assets classified on our balance sheet as discontinued operations and held for sale, and concluding the agreed-upon settlement of our securities-related litigation; our inability to comply with covenants in our debt agreements and the decreased financial flexibility associated with our substantial debt; and fluctuations in our net income attributable to changes in the fair value of our common stock that will be used to fund the settlement of the securities-related litigation. A discussion of these and other factors is included in the Company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

    CONTACT: Hanover Compressor Company, Houston
             Lee Beckelman, 281-447-8787

    SOURCE: Hanover Compressor Company