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%.

http://www.riftoil.com/ul/76_549377.pdf

Rift Oil Plc




Rift Oil Agrees Farm-In Deal with Multi-National Oil Company



Rift Oil Plc announces that It has reached an agreement with a major multi-national oil company to fund the drilling of up to four wells and 100km of seismic on its PPL235 licence in Papua New Guinea. Further details will be released upon signature of the formal documents. The offer is subject to documentation, various Government approvals and the signing of definitive farm-in and joint operating agreements.




The farm-in offer was the most preferred of a number of offers to emerge from a formal process initiated late last year to find an industry partner to assist the Company to prove additional reserves following its discoveries in Douglas 1 and PukPuk 1. Rift also wanted to find a partner who had a clear idea of the route to commercialisation. Rift has retained 100% of the rights to the adjoining licence PPL261 which we regard as highly prospective.



Chairman Ian Gowrie-Smith said:

'We are delighted to have agreed a farm-in on PPL 235 with a partner which we believe is well suited to meet the financial, technical and commercial challenges of the discoveries we have made on this licence. Contingent resource estimates put the potential on PPL235 as in excess of 2 trillion cubic feet. With costs of drilling and testing a hole of approximately US$15-18 million, it is clear that Rift needs a strong partner and today's announcement represents a huge endorsement not only of our discoveries, but of the potential for a third major gas development in PNG.'




Peter Mikkelsen FGS, AAPG, meets the criteria of a qualified person under the AIM guidance note for mining, oil and gas companies and has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this announcement.

Got a chance.

A buy signal tonight will take the sp to 10/12p in a few days and who knows 100p in the lt.

Plenty of buying today 10p wont be long now.

After 3 years its finally done it.

Looking at the three year chart, is it going to stay up and go on or retreat as it has on the chart?? I know it got the farm in deals ect, but can it sustain the sp.

Will they now have a chance of being taken over ?

I hope not fliper..

Can't believe it ! : 10p .....doing fine at long last.

Can't believe it! still only 10p!?

I hope that it won't follow the last graph movement with that sharp spike before slumping !.

Nice and blue at the mo,

I think it will rise to 15p now.

My buy at 9.58 is showing as a sell ? must be a tight spread .

Moving a few % each day a good omen.

Will these reach 15p this year ?

Hard to say fliper I've held for 3 years now a lt investment and I hope for 30p in 2 years time.

'Rift Oil agrees to Talisman's 114.8 mln stg bid'

'The 13 pence-per-share cash bid from Talisman, Canada's third-largest exploration and production company, represents a 30 percent premium to Rift Oil's close of 10 pence on Monday.'

Anyone know how we shareholders will be affected?

http://www.reuters.com/article/mergersNews/idUSBNG36184820090616

Sold out a few days ago...not a good idea by the look of it but this looks like the end for Rift Oil....the shark game is in full swing with one company eating up another all over the place !.