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Meridian Petroleum PLC
04 April 2006

MERIDIAN PETROLEUM PLC
('Meridian' or 'the Company')

VICTORY 1-21 SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED


Meridian, the oil & gas exploration and production company with key assets in
the USA and Australia today announced that the Victory 1-21 production well (10%
WI) has been successfully deepened in order to further penetrate a Niagaran
reef.

Using a coiled tubing unit and conventional work over rig, Total Depth was
reached at 4,394 feet and gas communication was made between 4,161 feet and
4,192 feet, an increase of approximately 31 feet in net pay. The well was
treated with acid to stimulate flow and is currently being swabbed to remove
remaining acid from the well bore following which the well will be put back on
line this week. It is anticipated that enhanced production rates will be gained
from the additional pay sections in the reservoir.

Anthony Mason, Chief Executive of Meridian said:

'The successful deepening of Victory 1-21 is good news for Meridian. The well
will be back on line this week, following which Meridian will resume receiving
income from Victory 1-21. We are now looking forward to the imminent completion
on Calvin 36.'

Don Caldwell, a certified petroleum geologist, is the Company's Qualified Person
and has reviewed the information in this announcement.


Enquiries:


Meridian Petroleum (020 7409 5041)
Tony Mason, Chief Executive

Westhouse Securities (020 7601 6100)
Richard Morrison

Citigate Dewe Rogerson (020 7638 9571)
Media enquiries: Martin Jackson / George Cazenove
Analyst enquiries: Nina Soon


This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange ND

Good News Today.Up 8% already

More sells than buys - why ?!!

Could be those who bought on very recent lows taking a good profit?

If they had sell orders in, i think they will be kicking themselves shortly

Ridiculous selling now, a rapid calculation shows a vastly undervalued stock.

good all the better for us, nice start to the new year

it hasn't been easy to pick a dud oil stock in recent months, so you guys must have researched very hard indeed - well done!

r field, what is your reckoning on sp should be?

At a guess I'd say around 12p, don't forget there is another well to be tried and tested and the Australian prospects are either to be sold or farmed in. This little company has a very small capitalisation value and is earning, the only thing is that we must hope that the orion well keeps on pumping gas. I can't remember if they have hedged any of the gas, but the price of gas is rising fast in the USA and CANADA. It would be a disaster if the orion well packed up but I think this little company has good management, their RNS,s seem to be very honest in their estimations, we shall see.

To the best of my knowledge Meridian have never mentioned hedging any of their gas. Their reporting of $32,000+ coming in per day would indicate not.

All I can say is if that well keeps on producing all year with that sort of income, and minor interruptions now and again, the company should declare a profit, although they will probably be drilling Calvin again, which will use up some of the funds.

To be fair the graph is really terrible, but there has to be some upside here, $32000 per day is not chickenfeed, let's suppose the well is offline for 65 days of the year, (I'm just guessing this) : that leaves 300 days times $32000 = $9600000 per year, a fortune for such a small company, (before expenses and tax of course), perhaps I'm missing something here, so please correct me if you wish.

why does there have to be upside? .... market disagrees with you too

There, a slight miscalculation on my behalf here, MRP only own 75% of orion,
so 9600000 divided by 4 multiplied by 3 = $7200000 , I would guess maximum revenue, that's if the well keeps on producing all year, any increase would be a bonus, if I'm anywhere near the correct calculations then this little company is undervalued and in time will be priced up accordingly.

PS. It's a leap year next year so it could be offline for 66 days, cheers!

dont forget they get 75% after their $3.5m is collected first!!!

You should research the rps reports on merideans website so even more money first.

Thanks m12rtn (what a weird name), do you mean MRP get $3.5m or the other company, please can you elaborate, thanks once again.

They have a NRI of 87.5% until CAPEX OF $3,500,000 is
recovered from production and then the NRI will reduce
to 75%.

Hope that helps

Thank you distant solar system m12rtn, this makes it a little bit better.

Anyone here care to give an opinion on today's RNS? I am somewhat ambivalent about it. On the one hand I had hoped that work on Calvin Deep might get underway fairly soon which now seems unlikely, on the other however the asset does appear substantial and having EnSight drop out of the equation could leave Meridian with a much greater stake by which to profit.