Petrel Resources PLC
22 July 2005


The following statement was made by the Managing Director at the AGM,
Dublin, 12 Noon July 22nd 2005


Petrel is in discussions to extend its area of exploration interest in Iraq. Any
new acreage will be under the transitional Technical Cooperation Agreement
developed by the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, while the new elected government
determines future energy policy.

Petrel's study of the East Safawi block in Jordan close to the Iraqi border has
been positive. We are moving to the next stage by deepening our analysis and
negotiating a Production Sharing Agreement with the Jordanian authorities. Once
a satisfactory agreement is in place a work programme will commence. This
programme is likely to include seismic and one or more wells once we are
satisfied with drilling locations.

Our partners, including many of the world's premier suppliers, continue to give
excellent support. This week Petrel engineers submitted detailed technical
clarifications on the Kormor Gas Project tender in northern Iraq to the Ministry
of Oil.

We understand that Iraqi Ministry of Oil officials are satisfied with technical
and commercial clarifications to our Subba & Luhais oil field development tender
of late 2004. Last week we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with GE on the
Subba & Luhais project. Both the Kormor and Subba & Luhais projects are in
relatively stable areas where it is still possible to work. It is not practical
to work in the central and western region presently.

Petrel has received, despite requests, no official confirmation of the awards of
Hamrin and Khurmala projects. Based on industry sources and media reports, we
assume these are gone.

Subba & Luhais remains our priority oil project, as it has been since 1999. We
continue to conduct regional work on Western Desert Block 6 and neighbouring
areas. Despite security challenges, we remain committed to expand our Iraqi
activities.

All resolutions were passed at the meeting.


Contact

David Horgan + 353 87 292 3500
John Teeling + 353 1 833 2833
Jim Finn + 353 1 833 2833


Bell Pottinger Corporate & Financial

Nick Lambert + 44 (0)7811 358764


Rowan Dartington

Barrie Newton + 44 (0)117 933 0011


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

Tokyo: Patience is a virtue they say, but particularly in the case of Petrel. I am glad holders and Directors have been rewarded so handsomely. Will wait to read the doomster posts now. JT

Nice to see you all succeed; just a thought, but why not take a profit and go into CHP. Even though it is up from 5p, a few of us believe it has some very good news to come out. Like you with PET we are waiting, but read the thread and see what you think.

Been in PET for nearly 18 months. Finally got sick of waiting for something positive on Monday. With a heavy heart I sold out.

: (

The above is somewhat understated.
The one consolation is that I'm enjoying the CHP hillclimb.
Does anyone have any meat to put on the bones of the contract award in terms of likely revenues and margins that PET will retain as a result of developing the oilfields?
Sick. Very.

All looking good here for holders.

Congratulations.

Deserved.

Mort and beasties I feel for you guys bigtime I nearly sold them myself recently after been in them for 19 months and I can't believe they finally came in...
Well done to everyone who was very patient especially those like myslef who kicked themselves for never selling them at 130+ before xmas

I still have mine @99. After the hype last year am still deeply troubled by the whole Iraq situation.
F

Bad luck Mort and Beasties and others who sold out recently, held these since April 04, I think David Horgan and his team deserve this success after all the hard work they have put in over the years, well done to them.

I used to look at this board all the time for weeks around the time it spiked. Got myself into a right state waiting for the "expected" mythical RNS that never came. Eventually decided my best course of action was to just not look on here and just hold until something concrete actually happened. Got impatient on Monday for no reason really.

Another lesson learned!
Well done to everyone who held, esp those who bought in when the sp was highest.

Am I right in thinking PET will make money from providing a service, as opposed to actually getting the stuff out of the ground and selling it? If it's the latter then the theoretical figures could look altogether intoxicating when you consider how much higher oil prices are now than when it all kicked off at the end of Sept04. And that would make a huge difference to whether the shares are still worth buying after today's excitement.

to all you Pets that are still in...as Del Boy would say
'He who dares wins'

In my humble opinion, the most liikely long term outcome of this now, is that as soon as it quitens a bit in Iraq, one of the majors will come in for Pet.
After all I really do think that it was ego that kept PET on the case in Iraq as they wanted to win that contract.
Thats what kept them going, but now I think that they have achieved what they prayed for....delivering is another issue
This is an awful amount of money to a small company and I think the easier option is to accept an offer, should one be forthcoming.
For those that are going to hang on in there, be prepared for a very bumpy ride on the PET rollercoaster...it may have lots of ups and downs in the coming months.
Hopefully 1.50 is not too far off

be lucky guys....PB

PB or anyone other followers of this story what sort of money do you think the majors would pay per share if things settle down in Iraq?

Hi All,

I put PET in my UK Stockmarket Challenge at the end of December last year, the competition involves picking your 5 top stocks for 2005, and you do not change them for a whole year.

I have been at No.1 in the copetiotion twice before,and today I moved back from 9th to 4th because PET went from a loss of 50% to a gain of 66% today :)

4 of my other stocks looking good to perform well right up to the end of December, not CDN by the look of things, but SEO, YOO, MMG and of course PET !

I tried buying PET online last week through IWeb, and couldn't get ANY .... oh well, I got LGB instead (66% up in one day !) .... :))))

Click the 2005 page, and details tab at the bottom :)

http://www.stockchallenge.co.uk/typo/stockchallenge/site/index.htm

Cheers,
PM

Toyko,
Good to see you are still about. Hope everythings ok with you and the family. Worth the wait but pet finally got there in the end.

wilbs

Wow ! What a difference to the portfolio - the malt will certainly be broached tonight.
The only reason I stayed in was my background experience of that area and its culture and negotiation style.
Not sure however whether a "major" would be acceptable currently - dont underestimate the Irish neutrality. My guess is that Teeling will stay with it for a while' or seek a partner (Canadian) for example who is politically neutral.
Thanks to Tokyo for his prompting last year

so what are people thinking likely bid price will be by end of tomorrow???

You all appear inspired.

Well done.

You all desreve it, and I know I am repeating myself.

Take a big pat on the back.

First few hours of trading will be interesting tomorrow after the newspapers have reported on this punt.

Hope we can get back to at least last year's SP of 130p+ that was based then on purely inspired speculation that reallistically at that time had no foundation.

Now that a solid contract has been ratified the company can now look forward to bigger future earnings and maybe further lucrative earning opportunities.

An interesting day coming up and now wondering what the Yanks think of this deal!!!!

Cheers,

Mike

Wilbs - good to see you are still here mate, I'm still holding on for a bit longer at least as I'm expecting to hear about the PSA in Jordan soon, the more contracts and PSA's they can get under their belt the more attractive they are for a take over bid, or at least alot more attractive for some of the investment houses to start buying up large chucks of stock, we saw a couple of big buys yesterday (or were they just short accounts being closed!!LOL)

sunray41 - you only have yourself to thank for staying in so long, well done pal good call

Mentions in, Unison IE Ireland, Irish Examiner, Guardian Unlimited, The Telegraph, This is Money, Sharecast and RTE News.
No doubt there will be weekend press follow ups. The institutions will also have another in depth look at Petrel.

Cheers Toyko. I sold out before but got back in a while back but not as much as I had before.
Heres a few snippets from the press.



08/09/05

Petrel wins Iraqi oil contract
By Claire Shoesmith
IRISH oil and gas exploration company Petrel Resources has won its first contract to drill for oil in Iraq.

The Dublin-based company said yesterday the Iraqi Ministry for Oil had awarded it a $197 million (158m) three-year contract to extract oil and gas from the Subba and Luhais oil fields near the Saudi Arabia and Kuwaiti boarders. Until now, Petrel has only been testing the fields and has not extracted any oil for export.

Managing director David Horgan said: This is a great moment for us. It is what we have been working towards for the past six years.

Shares soared after the announcement, tripling in value to 100.5 pence each.

Mr Horgan said that while the contract, which envisages daily production of 200,000 barrels of oil and 100 million cubic feet of gas, is to drill for oil proved to exist at shallow levels, the company hopes to extend the contract to include drilling at depth in the future.



The shallow levels alone are estimated to have at least one billion barrels of reserves and possibly three billion, he said. Work will begin almost immediately. The oil and gas will be transported to Basra and exported to the Far East.

He said the contract was a pleasing achievement because many in the industry expected it to go to one of the large multinational.

Petrel moved into Iraq during the fall of Saddam Hussein and has built up a valuable relationship with the Iraqi oil ministry.

Saudi Arabia is the worlds number one oil producer, extracting 9 million barrels a day, about 10% of world production. Mr Horgan estimates that Iraq, which currently produces about 1.4 million barrels a day, could match that.

The country has the largest unexplored reserves in the world, he said. Russia is the number two producer, but its supplies are at their peak and are expected to diminish going forward.

http://www.examiner.ie/pport/web/business/Full_Story/did-sgEmh8eigFCnYsgadLjt5C321I.asp

Among small caps, Petrel Resources stood out as its shares shot up 62p, or 170%, to 98.5p after it revealed it had won a contract to develop the Suba-Luhais oilfield in Southern Iraq.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1564955,00.html

Aim-listed Petrel Resources surged 62 to 100p after the oil exploration group was awarded a $197m oil development contract by Iraq's ministry of oil.

http://www.money.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/09/08/cxmktrep08.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/09/08/ixfrontmarkets.html
wilbs

Thanks Wilbs - should add a few pence on the opening bell, and then up and onwards!!