BOIL.L Regulatory News (BOIL)

7 Dec 2006 10:42

Gold Oil PLC07 December 2006 PRESS RELEASE For immediate release: 7 December 2006 Gold Oil Plc ("Gold", "The Company", or "The Group") Gold Oil Receives Perupetro Approval for an Exploration and Exploitation Contract for Block Z34 Offshore Peru Gold obtained a Promotional Licence from Perupetro for the offshore Block Z34 inFebruary 2005 and after detailed G&G work decided to apply for an Explorationand Exploitation Contract. Gold is pleased to announce that on 5th December 2006it received approval from Peru's state oil company Perupetro SA (Perupetro) fora 30 year Exploration and Exploitation Contract for Block Z-34 in conjunctionwith its AIM-listed joint venture partner, Plectrum Petroleum plc ("Plectrum"). Final formal approval from Peru's Minister of Energy and Mines is expected tofollow in the New Year. Under the terms of the agreement with Plectrum, Gold is the Operator with a 50%interest and is carried through the first phase of the work programme worth anestimated $1.0-1.5 million to Gold. Work has already commenced on theEnvironmental Impact Assessment to give us a head start on finding a suitabletime slot to bring a seismic vessel into Peru in conjunction with othercompanies intending to shoot seismic offshore. Gary Moore, Gold's Managing Director, said: "Block Z-34 is adjacent to existing shallow water and onshore productionconcessions in the Talara Basin, where over 1.7 billion barrels of oil have beenproduced to date. Exploration offshore in the block to date has been almostnon-existent with the deepest development platform being placed in 400 foot ofwater over 25 years ago. We are very excited about the potential of this blockas we just do not believe oil fields stop at 400 foot of water depth. Several companies were interested in forming a joint venture with us, but wedecided to go with Plectrum because they brought additional technical skills,such as the application of electro-magnetic imaging to the table, and alsobecause we share many synergies as both companies are of a similar size." Mike Burchell, B.Sc., 66, has over 45 years experience in the oil and gasbusiness. He has read and approved the technical disclosure in this regulatoryannouncement. ENQUIRIES: Gary Moore Managing Director; Tel: 01737833597 Email: gmoore@goldoilplc.com Mike Burchell Chairman; Tel: 01372361772 Email: mikeburchell@hotmail.com Roland Cornish Beaumont Cornish Limited; Tel: 020 7628 3396 Notes to editors: Block Z-34 sits in the prolific Talara Basin which has produced to date inexcess of 1.7 billion barrels of oil and 340 billion cubic feet of gas. The3,713 km(2) Z34 block (equivalent to 14 North Sea Blocks) has water depthsranging from 100m to 3,000m and sits adjacent to existing shallow waterproducing concessions, yet has a sparse existing data set of just 500 km 2Dseismic. The initial work programme will be to acquire some 2,000 km of 2Dseismic and enhance these data with Electro-Magnetic (EM) studies, in whichPlectrum has special expertise. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange