Mauritania drilling campaign

Sterling Energy PLC
10 September 2004

Sterling Energy is pleased to announce the imminent start of the 2004-2005
drilling campaign offshore Mauritania, where it holds carried royalty interests
in two licences.



The campaign will include up to 20 exploration and development wells, including
appraisal drilling on the 200 million barrel plus Tiof discovery on licence PSC
B, and development of the 125 million barrel Chinguetti Field.



Sterling Chief Executive Harry Wilson said: 'We are delighted that this campaign
is now about to get underway. Our royalty agreement with Premier means the wells
will be drilled and completed at no cost to Sterling, offering large upside to
our shareholders.'



Sterling holds interests in the licence areas PSC A and PSC B through its
successful acquisition of Fusion Oil and Gas plc last December. Fusion had
previously completed a royalty agreement with Premier Oil plc covering 6% of the
equity in PSC B and 3% in PSC A.  As a result of this agreement Sterling will be
paid a cash sum for each barrel produced net to these interests, based on a
sliding scale related to oil price.  At $30 oil this is $2.75 per barrel, and at
$40 oil it is $4.75 per barrel.



In addition for every discovery in excess of 50 million barrels Sterling will
receive from Premier a cash payment of $2 million in PSC B, and $1 million in
PSC A.



Operator Woodside Petroleum Ltd today issued the following details on the
Australian Stock Exchange:



                           DRILLING ACTIVITY UPDATE:

     OFFSHORE RIG ARRIVAL IN MAURITANIA SIGNALS START OF DRILLING CAMPAIGN





Woodside Mauritania Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Woodside Petroleum Ltd.,
expects the West Navigator to arrive in offshore Mauritania today.  The West
Navigator is the first of two deep-water drilling rigs that will work in tandem
on the 2004-05 drilling program, previously announced on 5 July, 2004.



The West Navigator is expected to begin drilling activities on 11th September.
The second drill rig to be used in this campaign, the Stena Tay, is expected to
arrive around the 15 September 2004. The presence of the two rigs allows for '
batch drilling' of wells whereby one rig performs the same operation on a number
of wells in sequence rather than drilling a single well from top to bottom. The
West Navigator will drill the 'top hole' sections of a number of exploration and
appraisal wells.  Following completion of the 'top holes', the wells will be
temporarily suspended before the drilling of the 'bottom hole' target sections
by the Stena Tay. This tandem drilling arrangement utilising the two rigs will
achieve increased efficiency during the campaign.



The West Navigator will commence 'top hole' drilling of the exploration wells
Dorade, Capitaine, Tevet, and the Tiof-A appraisal well. After completing the
batch drilling of the 'top holes', the West Navigator will move to completely
drill the Tiof-3 appraisal well on the Tiof discovery.  This well is currently
planned to be completed and flow tested.



The Stena Tay will commence its drilling activities with a development well on
the Chinguetti field in PSC Area B, followed by the 'bottom holes' on the wells
commenced by the West Navigator.



Equity interests in the relevant permits in Mauritania are as follows:


Company                                                       PSC A            PSCB          PSC C2
Woodside group companies (operator)                          53.846%         53.846%          48%
Hardman group companies                                       24.3%           21.6%          28.8%
BG group companies                                           13.084%          11.63%
Premier group companies                                                       9.231%
Fusion Mauritania A Ltd                                      4.615%
ROC Oil group companies                                      4.155%           3.693%          3.2%
Energy Africa                                                                                 20%





For further information please contact:



Harry Wilson, Chief Executive, Sterling Energy plc:        01582 462 121

Allan Piper, First City Financial Public Relations:        020 7436 7486
                                                           07736 064 982




                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange