RIFT OIL PLC
PLACING AND ADMISSION TO AIM


Rift Oil plc ("Rift" or "the Company") has raised 2.3 million before expenses,
through a private placing of 24,080,000 new Ordinary Shares and a placing on
admission to the AIM Market ("AIM") of 22,200,000 new Ordinary Shares, both at
0.05 per share, giving the Company a market capitalisation at the placing price
of 17.3 million. The shares will begin trading on AIM today (19 April 2006).
Insinger de Beaufort is the Nominated Adviser and Broker to the Placing.

Rift was established in November 2004 to acquire a 65% interest in an oil and
gas exploration licence, the petroleum prospecting licence number 235 ("PPL 235
Licence"), in western Papua New Guinea. It acquired this interest in December
2004 through its subsidiary Foreland Oil Limited ("Foreland Oil"), in return for
a commitment to spend US$6 million (approximately 3.2 million) on the
exploration and development of PPL 235. The remaining 35% interest in the PPL
235 Licence is held by Trans-Orient Petroleum (PNG) Limited ("TOPPNG"), a wholly
owned subsidiary of Austral Pacific Energy Ltd ("Austral"), a Yukon
incorporated, oil exploration company operating in New Zealand whose shares are
publicly traded in the United States of America, Canada and New Zealand.

In January 2005, the Company and Austral entered into a joint venture operating
agreement to constitute the joint venture between the Company and Austral (the "
Joint Venture") in relation to the exploration activities to be undertaken
within PPL 235. These include a commitment to drill one exploration well, which
has already commenced as set out below.

Between December 2004 and March 2005, the Company raised a total of 4,505,000
at 0.25 per share from a range of private investors pursuant to an offer for
subscription to enable it to meet its initial obligations in relation to PPL
235, and as general working capital. On 10 April 2006 the Company raised an
additional aggregate sum of 1,204,000 by way of a private placing also at 0.05
per share.

The Joint Venture experienced difficulties in securing an appropriate rig in
order to begin the proposed drilling program on PPL 235. This was due to the
current high demand worldwide for the hire of drilling rigs. This led to the
decision by the Joint Venture, in late July 2005, to purchase the Coral Sea-1
Rig, a heli-transportable, free standing double for the purposes of the Joint
Venture.

PPL 235 covers a total area of approximately 2,910 sq km and lies within the
Foreland Basin, an area southwest of the Papua New Guinea highlands
approximately 500 km west from the capital, Port Moresby. The Company has chosen
the Douglas Prospect and the Puk Puk-1 (previously known as 'Kamu') Prospect
("the Prospects") as the initial targets on PPL 235.

Following extensive commissioning work, drilling on the Douglas Prospect, the
first prospect on PPL 235, commenced on 4 April 2006. The Company expects to
reach the planned total depth of around 2,000m after approximately 20 days of
drilling. This will be followed by a 4 day wireline logging program to determine
what further testwork may be required. Further analysis and interpretation of
the results will be necessary during early May before an announcement can be
made. The Company will then decide whether the results are sufficiently
encouraging to either:

(i) flow test the well;

(ii) drill further appraisal well(s);

(iii) shoot more seismic over the field; or

(iv) drill the Puk Puk-1 Prospect, also on PPL 235.

Rift has lodged an application, together with Austral, for a further PPL (APPL
261) covering an area of some 3,958 sq km immediately north of PPL 235. This
application is in the name of Foreland Oil (for and on behalf of Rift) as to
50%, and TOPPNG (for and on behalf of Austral) as to 50%.

You didn't miss it, it was never communicated. Being price sensitive information maybe it should have been. At least its not a case of some knowing and others not.

belisce6, hi. I believe the RNS is simply stating a potential contractual commitment, it does not necessarily mean that the Rift have the production capacity 'in the bag'. There still needs to be further work done to confirm this aspect.

Theres alot of work that needs to be done with infrastructure before RIFT can even think about commercialisation. This will most likely lead to either another placing or outsourcing, either way at this point in time RIFT is a long way from revenue.

I was to worried to loose out by selling on thje recent rebound,so will top up at 4.75,if it goes thsat low as i think it will.GREAT potential mind.

Getting ready to top up on this one!!!

Getting ready to top up on this one!!!

Buy signal generated today.

The preliminary results to 31 March 2007 were declared earlier this week and whilst there is good potential, commercialisation of the gas find at Douglas is still a little way off. We certainly need some ongoing news as at the rate of drift shown on the chart we'll be back at 3p by September.

Have spent a few days trying to establish project timelines and to assess if it would be better to sell now and buy back a little way down the road. So, decision made, have sold today and taken the hit.

Was interested to note that on dummy trades I could buy up to 350,000 online but only sell 15,000 without broker involvement. Will be keeping a watchful eye for developments.

The trade has not shown up on my screen either. Maybe later today, who knows.

News next week if you believe the rumours.

Explosive, spot on with your assessment. Placing of 293 million shares at 3.75p. (Hope the link works).

http://moneyam.uk-wire.com/cgi-bin/articles/200707181045474416A.html

Darradev, link worked fine. Next few RNS's should be positive, and may well also help RIFT secure a partner to split the risk and make rift more attractable to investment.

That's my thinking also. At the moment RIFT is probably too small to handle such a venture without some significant assistance, both technically and financially. Will be looking for some additional postive 'pings' in the coming months.

Nows the time to buy before the placing rather than after that is.

Buy first thing tomorrow.

Why buy tomorrow Mitzy, whats the rush to get back in.

Someone bought 350k @ 4.75p today that shows confidence in a bad market perhaps they have heard that the placing has been a success just guessing .
What do you reckon TheMaster..?

Good news on the way.?

The placing is for mid August and understand to pay for the PPL 235 well test there afterwards plus other aspects later on. They still have to decide where to sell all the gas as situated in a remote location.

The Master:

Looked strong yesterday but no follow through this morning but could be a good time to top up ahead of the placing news which is expected to be fully subscribed according to market insiders.

I have been topping up,even though it will be a long haul,great stock for the longterm.

Agree with you capetown held for a year now and not made a penny yet but IGS is very confident that we are sitting on a world class deposit and thats enough for me to hold for 2/3 years when the prospects will be clearer.