Resource Update

Independent Resources plc

                           ("IRG" or the "Company")

                               Resource Update

The Company is pleased to announce results from Fiume Bruna 2 well
testing and an update on the appraisal campaign of the Company's
unconventional gas acreage, at Fiume Bruna and Casoni, located near Grosseto,
Italy.

Highlights

- Excellent gas quality and water manageability

- Confirms fairway in the deeper basin

- Significant Resource upgrade

- Positive resource implications for Casoni

- Re-classification as a Shale Gas play rather than Coal Bed Methane.

Results from the FB2 well stimulation and production test

The Company's wholly-owned subsidiary Independent Energy Solutions
("IES"), recently completed the FB2 coal bed methane (CBM) well in its target
zone present at a depth of 340 m (1100 ft) and executed a test of the coal's
productivity in this shallower part of the Ribolla basin (incorporating both
the Casoni and Fiume Bruna blocks) . A hydraulic fracture operation coupled
with a ceramic proppant, designed to enhance productivity, completed
successfully and this was followed by a production test that began on 17 April
2010. In the Company's latest Interim Results, announced on 8 June 2010 IRG
reported that initial results from FB2 were due shortly. The Company is
pleased to bring these forward.

Results from that operation showed that the coal is relatively easy
to fracture, producing vertical fractures, and it accepts sufficient
quantities of proppant. The gas, desorbed at depth, flowed to surface and was
tested to be of high quality, (93-94% of methane, with 1-2% of higher
hydrocarbons, 4% nitrogen and only 1% CO2), perfectly suitable for sale, and
with very little associated water, minimizing a potentially costly requirement
to treat waste water. The carbonaceous formation was found to have 1-2
millidarcies of permeability. Interestingly, the thermogenic gas, formed at
high pressure and temperature from the natural cracking of the organic matter
in the rock matrix, is found in a rock with insufficient thermal maturity to
generate gas. This is significant because it indicates gas migration from
deeper in the basin and implies large scale natural permeability. The organic
matter in the source rock matrix has demonstrated this coal's capability to
produce gas of very good quality. Further analysis suggests the Ribolla coal
sequence can be classified as semi-dry. IRG has been able to measure gas
desorption from cuttings from the same interval previously cored, reporting
similarly high level of desorbed gas, particularly from the carbonaceous
shale.

IRG has concluded that the Ribolla Carbonaceous Sequence (including
the coal and the overlying and underlying shale) responds more like a gas
shale than a classic high permeability CBM coal. Accordingly, extra pressure
differential (proportional to the vertical distance from the surface to the
bottom of the well) is needed to extract the gas at commercial rates. This
drives the consequent decision to focus activity in the deeper part of the
basin, where much higher drive pressure is present, and where coal and gas
shale are interpreted to be at an average depth of 1,000 m.

These findings have consequences for the likely development plan
which is the current focus of attention since it will drive the next steps.
The Company is focusing on a plan that calls for wells with long horizontal
sections, likely to be cased, perforated and stimulated each with a multiple
stage fracturing job.

Broader consequences: A new and extensive organic-rich carbonaceous
shale basin

The Fiume Bruna project has heretofore been described in terms of a
relatively shallow Coal Bed Methane (CBM) play but recent analysis, a new
depositional model, and well results indicate that this organic-rich basin is
more extensive and likely more productive at depths averaging 1,000 meters
(3280 ft). The extent of the deeper part of the basin is interpreted by
gravity anomalies, and by available offshore seismic sections located
immediately to the SW of the Casoni block.

Beyond the positive results from FB2 described above, recent new
sources of data have come from the construction of a regional depositional
model of the Ribolla basin and beyond. This has allowed IRG to map and analyze
this laterally-persistent gas-bearing carbonaceous shale sequence,
consistently located immediately above and below the main coal seam.

The Casoni and Fiume Bruna blocks cover more than 450 km2 (111,000
acres) and contain more than 140 km2 (35,000 acres) of potentially productive
area with a coal plus gas shale sequence at an average depth of 1000 m (3280
ft). The depositional model and the measured data indicates in the entire area
an interval of coal and gas shale more than 9 m thick on average, with an
average gas content of 4.7 m3/t (152 scf/ton) and an average density of 1.41
g/cm3.

The Company has therefore upgraded its previously-announced gross
prospective estimates of in-place gas and recoverable gas to 2C Contingent
Resources of 8.6 BCM (300 BCF) and 4.6 BCM (160 BCF), respectively. These
figures now include both the Fiume Bruna and Casoni blocks.

The following table summarizes the change of estimates and the
change of resources category over time since IPO in December 2005, excluding
any potential for enhanced gas recovery by CO2 injection (ECBM).


                               FIUME BRUNA     CASONI     TOTAL
                              P(mean)   2C        2C
 
Dec 2005     GIIP (BCF)         212    ---       ---        212
              PR  (BCF)         111    ---       ---        111
 
Jul 2007     GIIP (BCF)         167    ---       ---        167
              PR  (BCF)         92     ---       ---        92
 
Jun 2010     GIIP (BCF)         ---    112       188        300
              CR  (BCF)         ---     60       100        160

GIIP = Gas Initially In Place
PR = Prospective Resources
CR = Contingent Resources

This represents an improvement of the gross figures, not only due
to the addition of the Casoni license area but also the use of a more
appropriate average gas content of the rock based on extensive measurements.
The upgrade from Prospective Resources, as it was previously reported, to
Contingent Resources, arises from successfully flowing natural gas to surface
and is pursuant to the SPE-PRMS* guidelines which the Company uses for its
resource estimates. The Company expects to commission a new external Competent
Person's Report in due course.

Next steps

Since the Company's seismic database was acquired for the shallower
part of the basin using low-energy seismic acquisition techniques, a test
seismic line is planned to determine the best acquisition parameters to map
the subsurface carbonaceous stratum in the deeper part of the basin. This will
define an appropriate seismic acquisition program that will focus on proving
the extent of the basin and siting a well location in the middle of the
fairway. The Company will soon commence a detailed bio-stratigraphy study
focused on investigating the geological section drilled last year by the FB1
well. Depending on the results of this study and the new seismic, a re-entry
of the FB1 well (presently suspended with casing at 224 m depth) is envisaged.

IRG believes that an operator's specialized practical experience on
a similar shale play would be a great addition to the project. IRG will be
updating the market in this regard as news develops.

* SPE, AAPG, WPC, SPEE. Petroleum Resources Management System, 2007

This announcement has been reviewed by Roberto Bencini, Technical
Director of Independent Resources, for the purposes of the current Guidance
Note for Mining, Oil and Gas Companies issued by the London Stock Exchange in
June 2009. Mr. Bencini is a chartered petroleum geologist. He is a member of
the Society of Petroleum Engineers, the Geological Society of London and the
American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

For further information contact:

Grayson Nash                 Independent Resources   [phone]
                             plc                     
 
Simon Hudson                 Tavistock               020 7920 3150
Allan Piper                  Communications

 
Jonathan Wright              Seymour Pierce Limited  020 7107 8000
Stewart Dickson
David Banks
Richard Redmayne
 

Background

The Fiume Bruna Exploration Permit consists of an area totalling
247 km2 located in southern Tuscany, Central Italy, lying entirely onshore.
The exploration permit was applied for in August 2004; the license was awarded
to Independent Energy Solutions srl (a Company fully owned by IRG) on August
2008. The Permit area contains the second most important coal mining area in
Italy, exploited from 1839 to the late 1950's. The Ribolla coal is a
low-sulphur sub-bituminous coal of Miocene age. The Ribolla mine was notorious
for the frequent methane inflow and consequent explosions. The mine closed a
few years after the large methane explosion of May 1954 that caused 43
casualties, the worse mining disaster ever in Italy. The Casoni Exploration
Permit consists of an area totalling 187 km2 and is located just to the south
of the Fiume Bruna block, entirely onshore. The exploration permit was applied
for by Independent Energy Solutions srl in March 2007, approved by the
Ministry of Economic Development in October 2008, and its environmental impact
assessment is pending. The prospective area covered by both licenses is
characterized by plains and includes cultivated fields.

IRG drilled and cored Italy's first CBM stratigraphic borehole in
2006, and measured gas content and gas adsorption characteristics in coal and
carbonaceous shale. The gas was found to be thermogenic. During 2008-2009
Independent recorded a total of 66 km of 2D seismic and drilled FB 1 well in
August 2009. In addition, a large number of vintage boreholes, available from
the past mining activity, have been used to construct a regional depositional
model of the Ribolla basin and beyond. This allowed IRG to map a thick
gas-bearing carbonaceous shale sequence, consistently located immediately
above and below the main coal seam. The FB 2 well (target zone present at a
depth of 340 m, 1100 ft) was subsequently drilled to test the coal's
productivity in the shallow part of the basin, where the coal and the gas
shale were found to be saturated with gas. A hydraulic fracture job coupled
with ceramic proppant, designed to enhance productivity, was followed by a
seven weeks production test.

Unconventional gas: Reservoir rock for unconventional gas ranges
from coal beds which contain gas adsorbed into the solid matrix of coal to
organic-rich sedimentary rocks, called carbonaceous shales, where the gas is
adsorbed within the organic matter and it is present in the micro-porosity and
in the cleat space of this low permeability rock. Unconventional gas
collectively includes mainly coal bed methane (cbm) and shale gas. Natural gas
production from organic-rich shale formations, known as "shale gas," is one of
the most rapidly expanding trends in onshore US oil and gas exploration and
production today. It refers to gas held in relatively tight reservoirs where
the permeability of the reservoir rock is low enough to require stimulation to
achieve sustained gas flow. The development of technology that has allowed for
cost-effective use of horizontal drilling and multi-stage hydraulic fracturing
allows an area to be developed with substantially fewer wells than would be
needed if vertical wells were used.

Glossary

2C - denotes best estimate scenario of Contingent Resources

Adsorption characteristics - the measured property that relates the
amount of gas (methane) adsorbed on a solid (coal or coaly shale) at constant
temperature and at equilibrium to the pressure of the adsorptive in the gas
phase. The principal measurement to determine if a coal or coaly shale is gas
saturated or not, and to predict gas content at different depth and pressure

Borehole - shallow test well

Carbonaceous - rich in coal and/or coal-like material

CBM coal bed methane - Methane generated by anaerobic bacterial or
thermogenic activity within coal that is absorbed onto microscopic surfaces
within the coal. The methane is only free to flow once the hydrostatic
pressure is lowered sufficiently by pumping water out of the coal

Coal seam - a stratum or bed of coal

Contingent Resources - those quantities of petroleum estimated, as of
a given date, to be potentially recoverable from known accumulations by
application of development projects but which are not currently considered to
be commercially recoverable due to one or more contingencies. Contingent
Resources are a class of discovered recoverable resources

Desorption - expulsion of an adsorbed gas as a result of a decrease
in pressure. Measured by placing a fresh coal or coaly shale core sample in a
sealed container and observing the amount of methane released as a function of
time

Gas or natural gas - a naturally occurring mixture of hydrocarbon
gases that is highly compressible and expansible. Methane (CH4) is the chief
constituent of most natural gas (constituting more than 85 per cent.

Hydraulic fracture - man-made fracture or fracture system created at
the bottom of a well by injecting fluid at the appropriate pressure, in order
to increase the production capacity of a low-permeability reservoir rock

Known accumulation - an accumulation is an individual body of
petroleum-in-place. The key requirement to consider an accumulation as
"known," and hence containing Reserves or Contingent Resources, is that it
must have been discovered, that is, penetrated by a well that has established
through testing, sampling, or logging the existence of a significant quantity
of recoverable hydrocarbons

Matrix - the rock body between fractures

Miocene - the era, or geological strata formed during the period from
approximately 23.8 to 5.3 million years before present

P(Mean) - is the mean of the distribution of all possible recoverable
reserves figures and is the industry standard measure used in many types of
calculations. It is the area of a continuous distribution divided by the range
of outcomes; or, for a discrete distribution, the sum of all outcomes divided
by their total number

Permeability - the ability, or measurement of a rock's ability, to
transmit fluids, typically measured in millidarcies (mD)

Proppant - sand or sand like granules injected in the formation while
creating a hydraulic fracture in order to maximize the productivity of the
fracture by propping open the fracture

Prospective Resources - those quantities of petroleum which are
estimated, as of a given date, to be potentially recoverable from undiscovered
accumulations

Seismic data - a group of reflection seismic lines, usually forming a
grid of intersecting sections, used to interpret the geometry and extent of
rocks in the subsurface

Shale gas - natural gas, composed primarily of methane, that is
generated mostly by thermogenic activity within organic rich or carbonaceous
shale. The gas is absorbed onto microscopic surfaces within the shale and the
organic matter. The gas is only free to flow once the hydrostatic pressure is
lowered sufficiently by pumping water out of the borehole

Source rock - a rock rich in organic matter which, if heated
sufficiently, generates oil or gas

SPE-PRMS guidelines - industry standard guidelines, published by SPE,
AAPG, WPC, SPEE. "Petroleum Resources Management System", 2007

Stratigraphy - classification of stratified rocks according to
lithology, presence of typical fossils, chemical or mineralogical composition

Thermogenic - generated by thermal alteration of source rocks, rather
than bacterial action

Unconventional gas - Unconventional gas exist in accumulations that
are pervasive throughout a large area and that are not significantly affected
by hydrodynamic influences (also called "continuous-type deposits"). Examples
include coalbed methane (CBM), basin-centered gas, shale gas, and gas hydrate.
Typically, such accumulations require specialized extraction technology (e.g.,
dewatering of CBM, massive fracturing programs for shale gas)