Northern Petroleum Plc (“Northern”) announces that drilling commenced at the Sandhills-2 well on 1st August 2005. The well is located in PEDL 098 at co-ordinates OS 446150 E, 089815 N and has a planned total measured depth of 4167 feet. The primary target is the Great Oolite and the reserve potential is evaluated at being in the range of 10 to 50 million barrels recoverable.

Following the drilling of Sandhills-2 the rig will be moved to the Bouldnor Copse-1 well site near Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight to drill both a structure at the Great Oolite level and a deeper and potentially larger exploration prospect in the Triassic Sherwood Sandstone on licence PEDL 089 with a reserve potential of 90 to 140 million barrels recoverable.

PEDL 098 licencees are:

PEDL 089(A) licencees are:

For further information, please contact:

Northern Petroleum Plc
Graham Heard, Exploration Manager
Chris Foss, Company Secretary
Tel: 020 7743 6080

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