Roc Oil Begins Trading Shares on London's AIM Market

ROC, an Australian Stock Exchange 200 company, announces that its ordinary shares have been admitted to trading on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange ("AIM") under the symbol 'ROC'. Total volume of ROC shares traded on September 6th, the first day of London trading, was 128,829 and the closing price was 74.5p, equivalent to A$1.915 at the current A$-₤ exchange rate of 0.389. Canaccord Capital (Europe) Limited is acting as nominated adviser and broker ("NOMAD") to the Company.

On Monday, September 6, 2004, UK time, ROC released the following comments to AIM:

ROC, an independent oil and gas exploration and production company, has A$100 million net cash, no debt, and produces approximately 3,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from its 100% owned and operated Saltfleetby Gas Field in Lincolnshire, which is Britain's largest onshore gas field.

The Sydney-based company has a strong operating emphasis and an international focus, with exploration assets in West Africa, China and Australasia and producing and exploration assets in the UK. Each area of activity is associated with a proven petroleum province, two of which were discovered by ROC and its co-venturers. The company has a global acreage holding of approximating 26 million acres/105,000 sq km gross or 4.3 million acres/17,400 sq km net.

The Company has discovered commercial and / or potentially commercial oil with each of its initial wells offshore Mauritania, Australia and China.

During June 2004, ROC operated its first deep water well located in 1,500m of water offshore Equatorial Guinea, West Africa. In total, ROC has drilled, or participated in the drilling of, 37 wells during the last five years with an overall success rate of 62% and an exploration success rate of 33%, based on the 18 exploration wells drilled during this period. ROC's list of current projects includes one new field development (offshore Mauritania) and three potential new field developments (offshore Mauritania, offshore Western Australia and, possibly, offshore China) as well as a possible field development in the UK North Sea.

Over the next six months ROC expects to participate in multi-well exploration, appraisal and development drilling programs in, around, and on trend from its recent discoveries offshore Mauritania and Western Australia, as well as exploration drilling onshore UK. In total, more than 20 wells are expected to be drilled during this period.

ROC is not seeking to raise any fresh capital as part of its AIM listing because, in May 2004, the company completed a A$92 million fully underwritten, Rights Issue in Australia. The proceeds of that issue will be used to partially fund ROC's development and potential development projects, in Mauritania, offshore Western Australia and, possibly, China, as well as exploration programmes in West Africa, including Mauritania and Angola. A corporate debt facility is expected to fund the balance of the development expenditures.

John Doran, Chief Executive Officer of ROC said:

"Listing ROC shares on AIM is the next logical step in the Company's growth strategy. Although ROC's trading record would qualify it to list on the Main Board of the London Stock Exchange, ROC chose to list on AIM because the recently introduced "fast track" concept makes it an administratively simple, cost efficient and relatively quick process.

ROC's conveyor belt of projects runs from new ventures and exploration to mature production, in areas which appear to be of interest to UK investors, particularly West Africa where ROC has established a meaningful presence and a successful track record during the last five years."