Northern Petroleum Plc is pleased to announce that, at the Development Control meeting held on 26th October 2004, the Isle of Wight Council granted planning permission to its subsidiary Northern Petroleum (GB) Limited to drill an exploration borehole on the Island at the Bouldnor Copse, east of Yarmouth.

Derek Musgrove, Managing Director, said, “we are very pleased to have received the award of this planning permission for the Company’s second drilling location on the Isle of Wight. We look forward to commencing work on site preparation as soon as possible.

The ability we now have to drill our two wells on the island back-to-back will result in significant cost savings from the reduced rig mobilisation charges.

Both the Sandhills-2 appraisal well and the Bouldnor Copse-1 exploration well on the Island are targeted at the Great Oolite in which oil was discovered in 1982 by the Sandhills-1 well. Targets in the Sherwood Sandstone prolific oil producing reservoir at Wytch Farm, can also be reached from both drilling sites.

These are Northern’s first wells to be drilled in the UK as Operator. The Company has gone to great lengths to cover all recognised environmental, ecological and other concerns. These works are being undertaken with the support of Aberdeen Drilling Management, who will be providing support to the projects through the provision of project management services.”

For further information please contact:

Derek Musgrove, Managing Director
Graham Heard, Exploration Manager
Northern Petroleum Plc
Tel. 020 7743 6080

Chris Roberts / Ben Simons
Hansard Communications
Tel. 020 7245 1100