PPC.L Regulatory News (PPC)

18 Apr 2007 16:44

Meridian Petroleum PLC18 April 2007 18 April 2007 Meridian Petroleum plc ('Meridian' or the 'Company') Australian Native Title Agreed Meridian Petroleum PLC (AIM : MRP), the gas and oil production and explorationcompany with assets in the US and Australia announces the successful signing ofthe Native Title Agreement that allows the Petroleum Exploration Licence ("PEL")132 in relation to the Dolores Prospect in the Arrowie Basin, South Australia tobe offered to Meridian. In a ceremony held in Adelaide on Tuesday 17th April, Mineral ResourceDevelopment Minister Paul Holloway officially signed the Native Title Agreement,allowing the grant of the new PEL 132. The Native Title land access agreementswere concluded pursuant to the Commonwealth Native Title Act 1993 betweenMeridian Resources Pty. Ltd., the native title claimants (Adnyamathanha people)and the South Australian Government through the Right To Negotiate process In a news release the Minister has stated: "The Arrowie Basin deal is the firsttime that the Adnyamathanha people have signed a land access agreement forpetroleum exploration, subsequent development and production, and I congratulatethem," Tony Mason, CEO, Meridian, has commented "This is an extremely significant eventfor Meridian as it marks the end of 3 years of hard work by the Company to reachthis stage. Now that we have the Native Title agreed, we will continue withdeveloping the operational plan and assembling the team for drill testing tobegin in Q4 2007." The ECL Scott Pickford reserve summary on the Dolores prospect gave a P2Prospective Resource volume of 540 Bcf GIP. The Dolores resource is locatedapproximately 40 km from the Moomba to Adelaide pipeline. Ends For further information contact: Meridian Petroleum PLC Ambrian Partners Parkgreen CommunicationsTony Mason Neil Maclachlan Victoria Thomas+44 (0)20 7409 7233 +44 (0)20 7776 6400 +44 (0)20 7851 7480 Notes to Editors About Meridian Meridian is an oil and gas exploration and production company with key on-shoreassets in the United States and Australia. Meridian is quoted on the AIM marketof the London Stock Exchange (ticker: MRP), and is headquartered in London, withoffices in Houston, Texas and Adelaide, Australia. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange