Northern announces that on 12 April the Board approved the issue to a director of warrants to purchase Ordinary 5p Shares of the Company as follows:

Name: Nigel John Wright
Number of Warrants over Ordinary 5p Shares: 350,000
Exercise Price: 127.50p

The above warrants are each exercisable into one Ordinary 5p Share at a subscription price based upon the prevailing mid-market price at close of business on 9 April 2010. The new warrants are open to exercise in two equal tranches on 12 April 2011 and 1 June 2012 and expire on 31 October 2013 and 31 December 2014 respectively. These warrants have been issued in accordance with terms laid out in Mr Wright’s contract of employment and reflect a continuation of the Board's policy of providing performance based incentives to Directors and staff.

Nigel Wright is not currently a shareholder in Northern.

For further information please contact:

Northern Petroleum Plc
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7469 2900
Chris Foss, Director of Legal & Corporate Affairs
Sophie Hull, Head of Corporate Communications

Brokers to the Company

Jefferies International
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7029 8000
Chris Snoxall / Schuyler Evans

Astaire Securities
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7448 4400
Jerry Keen / Toby Gibbs