Spirit Exploration, Inc. Hires New President

January 17, 2008, Bakersfield, California: Spirit Exploration, Inc. (SPXP: Pink Sheets) Mr. Terry R. Fields, Chief Executive Officer of Sprit Exploration, announced today that Thomas J. Cunningham has joined the company as President effective January 15, 2008. Mr. Cunningham has over thirty years experience in natural resource exploration and development. His experience with publicly traded companies, the Securities Exchange Commission and the American Stock Exchange will be very valuable as the company moves forward with possible listings on the AMEX and/or other stock exchanges.

Mr. Cunningham was previously with Tri Valley Corporation as Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer responsible for accounting, finance and human resources. Tri-Valley is an AMEX listed company with several subsidiaries including Tri-Valley Oil & Gas which is an oil and gas exploration company with activities in California and Nevada and Select Resources, which is a mining exploration company with gold mining claims in Alaska.

Mr. Cunningham will be replacing Mr. Peter Laipnieks who has agreed to remain a Director. Mr. Laipnieks will remain President of ECUADORGOLDCORP, S.A, Spirit’s Ecuadorian subsidiary. Terry Fields, CEO, commented: “ Thomas will add tremendous experience to the team and help guide Spirit to a senior exchange while allowing Peter to help manage our rapid expansion of operations in Ecuador.”

About Spirit Exploration, Inc.: Spirit Exploration, Inc., a Nevada Corporation, is an early production mining company. Through its subsidiary ECUADORGOLDCORP, S.A., of which we own 99%, we are in the business of acquiring, exploring and developing mineral (gold, silver, copper) concessions in Ecuador. Spirit is in the process of bringing several mines into production. We have acquired, and we have additional options to acquire, a diverse range of mineral production and exploration properties in Ecuador.

Further information is available on the company website: www.spirit-exploration.com

Forward-Looking Statements: Certain information and statements included in this release are intended to constitute “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Federal Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the company to be materially different from any future results, performance, or achievements expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements

IR Contact: Dan Gravelle, Goal Capital LLC
Phone: 877 887 2118
Email: danny@spirit-exloration.com