Northern is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary, Northern Petroleum (UK) Limited (“NPUK”), has been advised that two Italian licences, of which it is operator, have been granted by decrees following acceptance of the required environmental impact studies. Northern holds a 69.3% beneficial interest in these licences through its holdings in NPUK and ATI Oil Plc (“ATI”), its 50% partner in Italy.

The licences confirmed are Nibbia, located onshore in the western Po Basin, and the re-designated G.R17.NP (formerly d18GR.-NP), located offshore close to the Tunisian boundary, in the west of the productive Sicilian oil province.

In the Nibbia licence, Northern is targeting both shallow Tertiary channel gas plays and deep oil potential, similar to others being actively explored by BG Group Plc (“BG”) and ENI SpA (“ENI”) in their adjacent joint licensed areas. It is believed that BG and ENI are proposing to drill their first well on a prospect identified as a result of a 2003 3-D seismic survey and just to the south of the Nibbia licence.

This strategic move to license G.R17.NP and the adjacent area covers 2850 sq km of the Apennine-Maghreb thrust belt offshore in Italian waters, believed to hold the potential for finding very large fields. To the east, this thrust belt contains the giant Val d’Agri oil field in the southern Appenines and the more than 1tcf Gagliano gas and condensate field in central Sicily. To the west in Algeria is the Tellian fold belt, where it is known as the Atlas thrust belt, containing oil fields.

Managing Director, Derek Musgrove, commented:

“Northern is delighted to have received the final decrees of these two key licences. More detailed work will now be undertaken, with the desired aim of bringing a number of our Po Basin shallow gas prospects, including Nibbia, to drill readiness as quickly as possible, so as to allow us to consider a multi well drilling programme during 2006.

A seismic survey was undertaken by PGS over the same area in the adjacent Tunisian waters earlier this year. Our work on reprocessing existing seismic data will continue whilst we await further licence decrees in the offshore west of Sicily over the coming months.”

For further information please contact:

Derek Musgrove/Graham Heard
Northern Petroleum
Tel. 020 7743 6080

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