Ascent Resources Regulatory News (AST)

Ascent Resources plc / Epic: AST / Index: AIM / Sector: Oil and Gas

2 December 2010

Ascent Resources plc ('Ascent' or 'the Company')

Drilling Update

Ascent Resources plc, the AIM-traded oil and gas exploration and production company, has been advised by its drilling contractor, Crosco International, that the mobilisation of a rig has started for the Pg-11 evaluation well in the Petişovci-Lovaszi project area in Slovenia, and that they expect to commence drilling on or around 16 December 2010, subject to weather conditions.

The well is the first to be drilled by Ascent on the Petişovci-Lovaszi project area in which the Company recently announced an independently verified P50 estimate of gas-in-place of 412 Bcf (11.7 Bm3; 68.7 MMboe). The PG-11 well has a number of important objectives and the evaluation programme, which includes core sampling and state-of-the-art wireline logging, is designed to collect sufficient data for development planning, as well as calibration of the 3-D seismic to optimise the geological modelling over the entire project area.

Ascent's Managing Director Jeremy Eng said, "Pg-11 in Slovenia is an important well and whilst the main effort is in the evaluation of the Miocene gas reservoirs, we expect that it will be completed as a producing well and then brought into production as soon as possible."

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Notes

Ascent Resources plc has a diversified portfolio of hydrocarbon exploration and development interests across five countries in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, Slovenia and Netherlands. Its portfolio contains a solid base of field redevelopment projects with selected exposure to exploration upside. The portfolio is focussed on gas and with the exception of the shallow water Netherlands project, all of its projects are located onshore where operating and development costs are substantially lower than they would be offshore.