EXHIBIT 99.1

J. Ray McDermott Receives Commitment Letter for a $25 Million LC
Facility

    HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 10, 2004--McDermott International
Inc. ("McDermott") (NYSE:MDR) announced today that one of its
subsidiaries, J. Ray McDermott, S.A. ("J. Ray"), has received and
signed a commitment letter for a new $25 million letter-of-credit
facility (the "facility") arranged by Morgan Stanley.
    "Although we recently determined a larger letter-of-credit
facility was no longer necessary at J. Ray because of the improving
liquidity profile and having no immediate planned use of proceeds, we
believe that this smaller facility will provide J. Ray with sufficient
additional capacity should it be needed," said Frank Kalman, executive
vice president and chief financial officer of McDermott. "We
appreciate Morgan Stanley's confidence in J. Ray's turnaround, and are
looking forward to closing the transaction on the agreed terms in the
near future."
    According to the commitment agreement, the term of the facility
will be 36 months with an optional redemption by J. Ray after 18
months. In addition, the commitment has no financial covenants. Liens
will be placed on certain J. Ray assets including its domestic
accounts receivable and the DB26 vessel. The remaining terms and
conditions are similar to those in J. Ray's senior, secured notes
issued in 2003.
    In accordance with the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, McDermott cautions that
statements in this press release, which are forward-looking and
provide other than historical information, involve risks and
uncertainties that may impact the Company's actual results of
operations. These forward-looking statements include our expectations
regarding completion of the $25 million letter-of-credit facility and
comments and statements regarding J. Ray's liquidity and turnaround.
Although we believe that the expectations reflected in those
forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance
that those expectations will prove to have been correct. Those
statements are made by using various underlying assumptions and are
subject to numerous uncertainties and risks. If one or more of these
risks materialize, or if underlying assumptions prove incorrect,
actual results may vary materially from those expected. For a more
complete discussion of these risk factors, please see McDermott's
annual report for the year ended December 31, 2003 and its 2004
quarterly reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

    CONTACT: McDermott International Inc., Houston
             Jay Roueche, 281-870-5462
             jroueche@mcdermott.com