Northern announces the legal completion of the sale of its Spanish assets to Gold Oil Plc (“Gold”) and a subsidiary of Ascent Resources Plc (“Ascent”). Following completion of the sale of its former subsidiary, Northern Petroleum Exploration Limited (“NPEL”), Northern has been released from all abandonment and environmental liabilities in respect of the Ayoluengo field and has received repayment of both its cash balances and working capital, totalling approximately €730,000, in addition to the £300,000 previously paid by Gold.

Chris Foss, Finance Director stated:

“We thank our former employees and colleagues at Ayoluengo for their hard work and dedication over the last three years and wish them, Gold and Ascent every success with their ventures in Spain. Northern will, by means of an over-riding royalty derived from future production, benefit from any drilling success resulting from Ascent’s planned appraisal programme on the Huermeces, Valderredible and Basconcillos-H licences.

The redeployment from Spain allows the Company to meet its stated aim of focusing its resources, human and financial, on development projects of greater potential in the Netherlands where the Group is planning to bring six old onshore oil and gas discoveries into production. It will also free up resources to progress the key assets within the Group’s extensive Italian portfolio. With that in mind we are delighted to see that our 38.2% investment in OFEX quoted ATI Oil Plc, our 50% partner in Italy, has increased significantly in market value following the recent release of its interim accounts.”

For further details please contact:

Northern Petroleum Plc
Chris Foss, Finance Director
Tel: 020 7743 6080

Investec
Michael Ansell
Andrew Chen
Tel: 020 7597 5000

Chris Roberts
Ben Simons
Hansard Communications
020 7245 1100