Company Information for Northern Petroleum Plc

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AIM; NOP

Company Statement

Northern Petroleum Plc is an oil and gas exploration, development and production company focused on the European Union. It is listed on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange. The Company is a recognised Operator of both onshore and offshore projects and boasts a management and technical team of the highest quality.

Operations and Technology

Northern Petroleum, which has proven plus probable reserves of 76.55 barrels of oil equivalent, focuses its investment in politically-stable and operationally benign countries. It targets areas previously overlooked by the industry, deploying modern technologies (such as state-of-the art seismic) to unlock value from these neglected assets. This strategy has enable the AIM firm to build a significant footprint at minimal cost in areas that are now attracting significant industry investment: in Italy, for example, Northern is now the largest acreage holder. The company is also an astute deal-maker, trading assets in order to gain maximum value for shareholders and bolster cash reserves.

The Netherlands
Northern entered the Netherlands in 2005, securing the rights to six undeveloped oil and gas discoveries in The Netherlands. The company has since built on that position and today is the second largest holder of reserves onshore The Netherlands. Its assets here include the producing Waalwijk gas field, where production has exceeded forecasts, and the offshore P12 Block. The company is also busy developing the six oil and gas fields, which are expected onstream in 2009. There is also significant exploration potential on its properties.

Progress has been slow in the Netherlands due to delays in the award of official permits but Northern has used this time to strike of series of commercial deals to extract value from its Dutch portfolio. In April 2007 Northern sold a 25 per cent stake in a selection of its Dutch assets to privately-owned Dyas in a transaction worth €41 million. The Dyas deal gave Northern a cash boost of €18 million and saw the Dutch firm commit to pay €14 million to Northern over the next three years as part of a joint venture to scout for new international opportunities. In July 2008 the company sold its interests in the Waakwijk underground gas storage project to Star Energy in a deal worth up to £10 million (€12.5 million). These deals gave Northern a real return on its initial investment in the Netherlands and, importantly, provided a cash pot to fund further growth opportunities.

Italy
Northern has built a substantial portfolio in Italy, operating 24 oil and gas licences that span some 13,000 sq km across three core areas: the gas-rich Po Valley, offshore Sicily and the oil-prone Southern Adriatic. Investors are keen to see this promising portfolio drilled and real progress was made here in late 2008 when Northern landed two significant farm-in partners: in October private equity group Indofin farmed in to three licences in the Po Valley (Savio, Cerasa and Longastrino) and in December Shell signed up as a partner in six of its Sicily Channel licences. The latter deal will refund almost €2 million of past costs on the licences and could see Northern carried for a work programme worth more than €100 million in an area that is believed to be an extension of the prolific Southern Apennine thrust belt with the potential to hold some 1.9 billion barrels of recoverable oil.

The Adriatic licences are home to two known discoveries: Rovesti is reckoned to hold 33.56 million barrels of probable recoverable reserves with an API number of between 25 and 30 degrees with the heavier Giove oil discovery (around 16-egree API) holding a probable 19.67 million barrels. Northern holds 50 per cent of the licences alongside ATI Oil plc, in which it has a 37 per cent stake. This gives Northern a 68.5 per cent net beneficial interest in the discoveries. The licences also hold six prospects that could hold between 2.29 billion barrels and 6 billion barrels of oil in place. The company is expected to farm-down its equity ahead of drilling.

UK
Northern holds a number of licences onshore UK, including the producing Horndean oilfield. In May 2008, the company added to its holdings, winning additional acreage in the UK’s 13th onshore licensing round. In Q1 2009 the company will drill the Markwells Wood-1 well in West Sussex, which will target an eastward extension of Horndean.

Guyane
Northern holds a 1.25 per cent beneficial interest in a licence now operated by Tullow Oil. The licence covers 65,000 sq km offshore Guyane and is home to the giant Matamata prospect, which has the potential to hold one billion barrels of oil. Drilling is due to start in 2009.

Spain
Since Leni Gas & Oil Plc (“Leni”) took over operatorship of the Ayoluengo field, the primary effort has been the successful increase of production from the field to 130 bopd and a basin wide reinterpretation of the nearby licences in which Northern has a royalty interest. This work has identified prospective and contingent resources of 12.8 million boe.

Leni has now received all regulatory permits and approvals to commence its planned extended well test on the Hontomin-2 well, with the objective being to appraise the long term production potential of the well and determine the optimum exploitation plan for the Hontomin field, which they currently envisage to be the maximisation of production by a side-track of Hontomin-2 in the second quarter of 2010. The Hontomin structure is considered by Leni to have mean oil in place of 2.4 million barrels and the recovery target is 1 million barrels. Northern holds a 1.25% over-riding royalty from any future production on the three exploration licences that contain the Hontomin and other discoveries. Therefore any operational activities conducted by Leni will not call upon Northern’s financial and human resources.

Geographical Spread

Board of Directors and Key Management

Richard Latham	Chairman
Derek Musgrove	Managing Director
Chris Foss	Finance Director
Graham Heard	Exploration and Technical Director
Jeremy White	Non-executive Director
Tony Brewer	Non-executive Director

Company Address

Martin House, 5 Martin Lane
London, United Kingdom EC4R 0DP


Telephone:	+44 (0)20 7469 2900
Facsimile:	+44 (0)20 7469 2901
Email:	info[at]northpet.com
Website:	http://www.northpet.com

Additional Address/Key Contact

ITALY OFFICE:
Northern Petroleum (UK) Limited
Viale Trastevere, 249
00153 Rome
Italy

NETHERLANDS OFFICE:
Lange Voorhout 86 unit 2
2514 EJ The Hague
The Netherlands

Capital

Shares in issue 78,885,326

Major Shareholders

Name	Shares	% of issued
Chase Nominees Limited	7,183,948	10.12%
Goldman Sachs Securities (Nominees) Limited	4,315,062	6.08%
ABN AMRO Bank NV London Branch	3,750,000	5.28%
Barclayshare Nominees Limited	3,351,509	4.72%
The Bank of New York (Nominees) Limited	3,347,369	4.72%
L R Nominees Limited	3,212,263	4.53%
Nortrust Nominees Limited	3,048,280	4.29%
TD Waterhouse Nominees (Europe) Limited	2,871,657	4.05%
HSDL Nominees Limited	2,382,145	3.36%

Most Recent Statement

14/01/10 - Commencement Of Offshore Sicily Seismic 3D Survey
12/01/10 - Additional Listing
11/01/10 - Tiendeveen 1 exploration well prepared for testing
07/01/10 - A FURTHER 307 BCF OF GAS BROUGHT INTO PRODUCTION
08/12/09 - Northern completes pipeline and starts new production from gas field
01/12/09 - Correction re Total Voting Rights

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