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     THE BEARD COMPANY                                             News Release
Enterprise Plaza, Suite 320
   5600 North May Avenue                               Herb Mee, Jr., President
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73112
 (405) 842-2333 OTCBB: BRCO

                           THE BEARD COMPANY ANNOUNCES
                    FINALIZATION OF PATENT LICENSE AGREEMENT
                            BY ITS E-COMMERCE SEGMENT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  Wednesday, May 7, 2003

     Oklahoma City, Oklahoma --- The Beard Company  (OTCBB:BRCO) today announced
that its 71%-owned subsidiary,  starpay.com, l.l.c., has signed a Patent License
Agreement with Universal  Certificate  Group LLC ("UCG").  The Agreement  became
effective March 28, 2003.

     UCG,  based in New  York  City,  has  developed  a  universal  online  gift
certificate  that is accepted as payment at  hundreds  of online  stores.  UCG's
consumer  offerings are available  through their  subsidiary,  GiveAnything.com,
LLC.  UCG also  offers  corporate  reward  and  incentive  programs  through  an
additional subsidiary, CorporateRewards.com, LLC.

     The Agreement grants to UCG as licensee the exclusive, worldwide license to
use, improve,  enhance or sublicense  starpay's Patent No. 6,370,514,  issued by
the U.S.  Patent and  Trademark  Office on April 9,  2002.  The  Agreement  will
continue in effect for the term of the Patent. Under the Agreement, starpay will
receive a license fee payable  annually for three years,  plus a royalty payable
semi-annually  during the Patent  term.  starpay  will also share in any license
fees  or  royalties  paid  to UCG  for any  sublicenses.  The  licensee  has the
exclusive right to institute suit for infringement under the Agreement.  starpay
has the right to jointly  participate  in any suit,  in which  case any  damages
obtained  will be shared  according to the fees and expenses born by each party.
UCG has the option to terminate the Agreement at any time without liability.

     Herb Mee, Jr., Beard's President and starpay's Chairman, stated: "This is a
major step  forward for  starpay.  Our focus during the past year and a half has
been to develop licensing  arrangements  with companies  choosing to utilize our
intellectual  property. We are particularly pleased to be able to implement such
an arrangement  with UCG since  GiveAnything.com(TM)  is a recognized  leader in
selling gift certificates on the Internet."

     "This is a win-win  relationship with starpay as our universal  certificate
technology  platform  validates the patent and complements our efforts to secure
our  position  as the  leading  online gift  certificate  service,"  said Edward
Brookshire,  CEO of Universal  Certificate Group. "We are excited about this new
partnership  and look  forward  to  working  closely  together  to  protect  the
integrity of this valuable property."

     The Beard Company's  common stock is traded on the OTC Bulletin Board under
the  symbol:  BRCO.  Its  operations  consist  principally  of coal  reclamation
activities,  carbon dioxide (CO2) gas production, the construction of composting
plants in China,  and its  e-commerce  activities  aimed at developing  business
opportunities  to leverage  starpay(TM)'s  intellectual  property  portfolio  of
Internet payment methods and security technologies.

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About Universal Certificate Group LLC:
Founded in 1999 as a consumer gift  certificate  service,  the  GiveAnything.com
subsidiary  (www.giveanything.com) offers an online gift certificate accepted as
payment   at  over  600  online   retailers.   The   business-to-business   arm,
CorporateRewards.com  (www.corporaterewards.com),  offers  clients fully branded
award  management and redemption  tools,  all using its patented  universal gift
certificate platform.