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%.

morning mitzy.

Yes, looks great, 20p wud do for now, can't understand the buy price dropping from 3.75p to 3.54p though !

I agree 20p would be just great it will take time before investors realise the potential.

My money is on Alcan buying Rift out within the 12 months of 2008 and the price around 20p ,,cheers.

Looking good!!!

Looking better capetown my average is 4p now so not long to go I'm positive 2008 will be a great year.

Merry xmas and happy new year everyone.

all the best oily..

Mitzy,looks like it will creep up to 4p in new year,got more today @3.40,100k.
good luck and have a good one.

good luck capetown I know someone paid 3.7p for 200k so you did great @3.4p ..cheers.

I got them at 0801 this am.

I think this one is due to come out of hibernation, almost forgot that I have some, did not get out at the right time so have stayed put, still can't understand why the Douglas prospect was not flow tested (to save money perhaps, not good for the sp though ! ), we shall see, reminds me of PVR...

Interesting to hear Nigel Wray talking about being a shareholder because he is a friend of Ian Gowrie Smith but not knowing much about the company's activities. Doesnt that say it all!

Well investing nowadays is almost like gambling, who would have thought that Northern Rock and SG would go down the spout ?, this looks like a possible future winner, we shall wait and see, I love these small oil and gas stocks, somehow more exciting than anything else, this investing is becoming a major pastime for me...

Britain's so called BUFFET has made a few bad calls lately (MYH,HCEG to name two).Pretty sure Warren doesn't buy shares because a friend runs the company!

Apologies just now, I put NOP instead of Northern Rock, (NOP is of course the epic code for Northern Petroleum), sorry, now corrected.

This time of year is always bearish, RIFT has already secured it finance so unaffected by the credit crunch. I take the current share price inline with the seasonal trend. News of that financing being spent on infrastructure and some milestones hit to budget is what we need to attract attention and a higher share price. I think a buyout would only occur once the management are proven, RIFT has already proven itself as an exploration company now it must do the same as a producer, new territory so we shall see..

Now looks like buying time I've been waiting for....

Been in this for some time now, sp really low now, the next 4 or 5 months should be interesting !

">

Looks like all time low...

Up today on drilling April rns.