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%.

PP, that's quite a find, but not sure about your interpretation. They can't be planning to turn a multi-trillion cu ft gas find into a producer without using a drilling rig, can they?

The market seems to have a very different view of RIFT compares to the private investors as portrayed by BB posters. Why is that?

soultraders, the announcement came (late June) just after the Austral news release to say they have got the testing equipment for Douglas-1.

The key thing is condensate flows here, if they have commercial levels of condensate then they can put this into production, the gas would have to wait years for the pipeline, but condensates is a different matter.

May be wrong, but guesswork would say they are confident they will not be needing to drill Puk Puk 1 for some time, and in that time they will be putting Douglas-1 into production......so therefore can rent the rig out.........who knows...but very interesting.

Interesting indeed. I am slightly surprised that they don't want to drill Puk-Puk as soon as possible as well, but if they are a small team with a big project ahead of them I can understand them wanting to concentrate on a successful (hopefully) job in hand.

did RIFT say at any time how many wells they had drilled on-site, or is Douglas-1 literally just the one, as I suspect? Sounds like not very many holes to me - or am I simply too used to Russian producers with herds of nodding donkeys all over the landscape?

The rig operators 'Austral' web-site reference to the Douglas-1 well has been removed in the last hour, we may have a news statement released today?

Like?

Expect further testing over begining of next week, possible statement mid to end of the week at best. SP has recently taken a battering so I'm sure news won't be delayed any longer than required.

Seems to of found a support level!

Maybe but was twice this price around 2-3 months ago!! Got hit hard like all the explorers did during the shake up.

Options for Commercialising Douglas Gas Discovery to be Evaluated

Wellington, New Zealand 25th July 2006 Austral Pacific Energy Ltd. (TSX-V and NZSX: APX; AMEX: AEN)

PRESS RELEASE

Options for Commercialising Douglas Gas Discovery to be Evaluated

Austral Pacific Energy Ltd (Austral Pacific) announced today that the PPL 235 joint venture is about to embark on studies designed to evaluate the options for commercialising its Douglas gas discovery in Papua New Guinea. Austral Pacific has a 35% interest in PPL 235, the other joint venture participant being Rift Oil PLC (65%).

The Douglas-1 well reached a target depth of 1978 metres on 26th May 2006. The drilling and wireline logging results have now been fully evaluated and the conclusion drawn by the joint venture's technical committee is that the Douglas well appears to be an exciting gas discovery with a significant gas resource of potentially several hundred billion cubic feet contained in a large structure with a maximum area of over 40 square kilometres. The discovery is also expected to serve to lower the exploration risk for other identified prospects and leads in the licence. It is the joint venture's current intention to proceed with a detailed feasibility study to determine a commercialisation strategy for this resource.

The excellent results obtained from the drilling record, wireline logs and in particular from the Multi-Formation Tester, indicate that there are two reservoirs (Alene and Toro) of sweet gas with good deliverability and likely moderate condensate content. The joint venture had initially considered conducting flow testing on the Douglas-1 well but given the logs and MFT as well as the knowledge obtained from data from nearby wells, the joint venture believes it has a sound understanding of the envelope within which the formation and fluid properties lie such that incurring the costs of flow testing would not be warranted at this time.

The joint venture is also planning to acquire additional seismic in the licence in order to determine the extent of the Douglas resource, to define appraisal well locations on the Douglas structure and to define exploration drilling locations on other prospects. The joint venture is planning to bring forward to the 4th quarter of 2006 its commitment to acquire and process 50 kilometres of new 2D seismic. The new seismic data, when integrated with the existing data base, will elevate the joint venture's understanding of the prospectivity of the licence and will be critical in determining the best locations for future drilling and enable the joint venture to maximise the return on its investment.

In making the announcement Austral Pacific's Chief Executive Officer Rick Webber said "The goal for our company is to create shareholder wealth by establishing and growing a low cost, sustainable oil and gas production profile. The discovery of gas at Douglas, the initiation of studies to look at the options for commercialising the resource, and the acquisition of further seismic in the Douglas licence to help us understand the extent of the resource and the prospectivity in the licence area are key steps along the path to that goal."

Clarification

At its recent Annual General Meeting, the Company stated that merger and acquisition activity would be a potential component in its growth strategy and since the meeting the Company has noted the existence of rumours of an impending transaction involving the Company. The Company confirms that while M&A activity remains part of its corporate development strategy, it is not currently in any merger discussions with any party.

Ends

Web site: www.austral-pacific.com
Email: ir@austral-pacific.com
Contact: Rick Webber, CEO, +64 (4) 495-0888

Holy 73% rise.

You got it from me remember!
This will fly when the US wakes up later today

The Master, are these guys listed in the US as well?

In for 30,000 at 6.1p. My first buy in a few months and boy, did it feel good!

This has the smell of VOG about it (the inside 6 months 8-bagger bit, hopefully!), so I am delighted to be in at last (and just wishing I'd had the minerals for it when it was still around 4p!).

Big thanks to HLYeo, PP, etc for all the hard work.

Would I be right in saying MM's are holding this back?

http://www.oilvoice.com/Austral_Group_Consider_Options_for_Commercialising_Douglas_G/6924.htm

6.5p was peek.. I reckon this will be back at 3.5p at end of week

Good - then we can all buy lots more and make even more money when it hits 50p a share :o)

Moving on up now for the secord spurt.
MM's trying to hold these back, but know they can't forever.

Err yes they can.. have you seen how many shares rift have..

the trades that have gone through today are basically tiny.. wany selling easily drops the price.

take ya money and run I say.. last one out is a wrotten egg