looks like its hit oil, don't know whats gonna happen, any idea's ???

RNS out today:

Northern Petroleum PLC - Farmout Agreement
Embargoed: 0700 hrs on 23 August 2006

Northern Petroleum Plc

('Northern' or the 'Company')

Farmout Agreement

Wholly owned subsidiaries of Northern Petroleum Plc and ATI Oil Plc ('ATI')
have concluded a farmout agreement with Stratic Energy Corporation ('Stratic')
covering the Longastrino and Savio licences in the Po Basin in Italy, subject
to the usual governmental and regulatory approvals.

Under the terms of the agreement, Stratic has committed to fund the acquisition
of seismic data together with related technical interpretation work up to a
maximum of Euro 1 million in exchange for the options to drill a single well on
each permit to earn a 50% working interest in both permits. Stratic's total
commitment, if the options on both permits are exercised, is Euro 9.05 million.
At this time, both Northern Petroleum and ATI Oil, who currently each hold 50%
of the licences, will have their interest decreased by 25% respectively, with
Northern Petroleum (UK) Ltd retaining operatorship.

The Longastrino and Savio licences are located in the prolific Po Valley area
near the eastern coast of northern Italy, adjacent to Grove Energy's San Marco
acreage upon which the Abbadesse gas discovery has recently been made.
Furthermore, in 2002, the Agosta gas field was discovered by ENI on a licence
adjacent to Longastrino. Nine stratigraphic leads in the acreage have been
identified and further seismic data over the next six months will be acquired
to enable these leads to be firmed up for drilling in 2007.

Derek Musgrove, Managing Director or Northern, commented,

'We are delighted to welcome Stratic as partners to two of our Italian
licences. The Directors' past experience of success in Italy, with Enterprise
Oil, which was taken over by Shell, is certain to make a valuable contribution
to our combined efforts.'

For further information contact:

Northern Petroleum Plc Investec

Derek Musgrove, Managing Michael Ansell
Director
Tel: +44(0)20 7597 5000
Graham Heard, Exploration
Manager

Tel: +44(0)20 7743 6080

Panmure Gordon & Co Hansard Communications

Katherine Roe Chris Roberts / Ben
Simons
Tel: +44(0)20 7459 3600
Tel. +44(0)20 7245 1100

Notes to editors:

The Po Valley

The Po Valley is Italy's most prolific gas basis, having produced more than 4
tcf (trillion cubic feet) of gas since the 1950s from more than 30 fields.
Access to the area by international companies was restricted until the late
1990s as the state oil company had exclusive rights over the vast majority of
the acreage in the region. Most hydrocarbons (biogenic gas) in the region are
found in Pliocene or Pleistocene reservoirs in anticlinal thrust belts and,
lately, in stratigraphic traps. On the Longastrino and Savio permits target
reservoir zones are in the range 2,500 - 3,000 metres. Italy operates a 'drill
or drop' licensing regime, under which companies have the option, after
fulfilling data acquisition commitments, to drill a well to secure acreage into
further activity phases, or to drop the acreage if prospectivity is low. A tax
and royalty regime is operated in the country with an overall local and state
tax take of approximately 35%.

Northern Petroleum

Northern Petroleum is a junior oil and gas exploration and production company,
focussed on the EU, with major assets in the Netherlands, Italy and the UK.
Northern holds a 50% interest in 22 licences and successful applications in
Italy covering 12194 square kilometres which will represent the second largest
area under exploration in Italy by any one company.

Stratic Energy Corporation

Stratic is an international exploration and development company with gas
developments in Turkey, oil developments in the UK North Sea and exploration
acreage in Morocco and Syria. Further information can be found on the company's
website at www.straticenergy.com

Drilling due on up to nine leads in 2007, subject to these being confirmed by further seismic.

Looks promising for Italy, IMO; as it says in the RNS, the Po Valley is Italy's most prolific gas basin.

Why havn't we heard anything from Avington yet? The testing wassupposed to take 4 weeks, it's been about 6 weeks now.

Does this mean it maybe bad news on that score.

good question - you could try contacting Star Energy as I did a while back re this one.

However, they can't just hide bad news, so maybe things are just proceeding slowly.

I believe the longer it goes (Avington testing) on the more chance of good news. If it was bad they would have plugged and abandoned long ago. Maybe very good news.
The Farm-in for Italy is great news and they are getting one of the smaller concessions taken care of for basically no investment on their part. A good bit of business by DM, in my opinion, and surprised the market did not respond better than it did.

Wise thinking Rutherford! i've noticed all wells that get abandoned

Very good article on NOP on www.oilbarrel.com today.

Long-term growth, lots of. broad portfolio . . . Hog heaven :o)

It may be the time-frame that's putting people off from diving in right now. Doesn't bother me, as I'd consider NOP a good haven for any profits I make elsewhere and want to keep safe, and the longer the shares stay cheap the more I can have :o)

ST, have you ever looked at MOG in any depth. I was interested in you saying NOP are a "good haven for any profits you make elsewhere". I view MOG in the same way. They are producing, developing existing acreage, have some great licenses (off Malta looks very good) still to explore, and have experienced management. I appreciate it was "broker speak" but at float the broker was confidently predicting them to be a 5-6 share within 3-5 years.

MM, I need to have another look at MOG. I was in for a month or two, bought unfortunately right on the peak and sold when the market slid in May for a loss.

There is a MOG thread out there somewhere - if you feel like dusting it off and posting any new news, then I'd be happy to read it and pitch in.

I am in GBP (Global Petroleum), which also has interests off Malta -don't know offhand if they are the same ones as MOG.

What's this I see? The share price wakes up, market cap dead on 100 million. nice little rise this morning!

NOP Bid: 142p Offer: 145p Change: 8.5

A good day for NOP, and a lot more of them to come over the next year!

Agreed!

Ticking up again after three days of reversal.

NOP Bid: 140p Offer: 145p Change: 5

NOP coming back into fashion again. I had a feeling that things would pick up at the end of the summer season - FTSE seems to be on a steady march too.

Anyone have any news as to why NOP is falling?

Shorters.

Soggy oil price.

So much for my feeling tha things would pick up - NOP still sliding.

Have sold my entire holding at 35% profit and bought today's hot stock, Forum Energy (FEP), which looks like repeating what VOG did a year ago (it's up around 60% today!). Will then probably plough some profit back into NOP at some stage.

Good luck to those who are still in.

PDYOR, etc.

Does anyone know why there has been such a big fall in share price recently. I t was only a few week ago when the price was 1.47. Soul trader I thought about buying in yesterday at 1.32 but did not. I should have done. I might just buy in today. At least they have good news with the oil find fep. Fep is a n oil share that I have never really took any notice of until now. I may buy ten thousand today. Good luck.