Licence Award

4 Jul 2005 06:15

Embargoed Release: 0715hrs 04 July 2005 Northern Petroleum Plc ("Northern" or "the Company") Final Decree of Two Italian licences Northern is pleased to advise shareholders that ATI Oil Plc ("ATI"), its jointventure partner in Italy, has today announced the final decree of a further twoItalian licences in which Northern has a 50% interest.The full text of the ATI release is as follows:"ATI is pleased to announce that it has been advised by its partner, NorthernPetroleum (UK) Limited ("NPUK"), that the Italian authorities, having acceptedthe required environmental impact studies, have issued the final decree of afurther two Italian licences in which ATI has a 50% interest.The licences confirmed are the re-designated G.R18.NP (formerly d19GR.-NP) andG.R19.NP (formerly d20GR.-NP), both of which are located offshore adjacent tothe recently decreed licence G.R17.NP and close to the Tunisian boundary, inthe west of the productive Sicilian oil province.A strategic move has been undertaken to license the 2850 sq km area in thesethree licences covering the Apennine-Maghreb thrust belt offshore in Italianwaters, believed to offer the potential for finding very large fields. To theeast, this thrust belt contains the giant Val d'Agri oil field in the southernAppenines and the more than 1tcf Gagliano gas and condensate field in centralSicily. To the west in Algeria is the Tellian fold belt, where it is known asthe Atlas thrust belt.Finance Director, Chris Foss, commented:ATI is delighted to have received the final decrees of these two licences thatare adjacent to the recently decreed G.R17.NP licence. A speculative 2-Dseismic survey was recently undertaken by PGS over the same thrust belt in theadjacent Tunisian waters. Our work on reprocessing existing seismic datacontinues, and the joint venture is considering the recording of new trialseismic lines if, as anticipated, PGS records a 3-D survey over the offshoreTunisian part of the thrust belt."Further enquiries:Northern Petroleum PlcGraham Heard, Exploration ManagerChris Foss, Company SecretaryTel: 020 7743 6080Hansard CommunicationsChris Roberts/Ben SimonsTel: 020 7245 1100Further information on Northern Petroleum Plc is available via our website,www.northpet.comENDNORTHERN PETROLEUM PLC