Appointment

Celtic Resources Holdings PLC
19 July 2001

                        CELTIC RESOURCES HOLDINGS PLC

              CELTIC APPOINTS WILLIAM C KELLEHER AS EXECUTIVE VP

                      OF COMPANY'S OIL AND GAS DIVISION


  * 22 Years Of Worldwide Exploration And Production Experience

  * Initial Focus On development Of Tamdykol Oil Field In Kazakhstan

Celtic Resources Holdings Plc ('Celtic'), the Dublin ESM quoted company, is
pleased to announce the appointment of Mr William C Kelleher as Executive
Vice-President in charge of all the company's oil and gas activities and
projects. He brings to Celtic 22 years of worldwide exploration and production
experience, most recently in Kazakhstan, where he was involved in an oil
discovery and the completion of two full field developments.

His experience spans the world's major hydrocarbon-producing nations with the
last four years in Kazakhstan, and includes senior positions with leading
groups such as Occidental, Chevron, Shell and Unocal.

'Bill Kelleher has had an outstanding career in the international hydrocarbon
industry', says Kevin Foo, Chairman and Managing Director of Celtic. 'He is
very experienced in all aspects of the business and has a proven track record
of asset enhancement. His demonstrated skills in new project development in
Kazakhstan, as well as in acquisitions and project financing, will be the key
to the future growth of this division of the company. I have no doubt that,
under his leadership and guidance our oil and gas business will be
successful.'

Mr Kelleher's initial focus will be to advance operations at Celtic's Tamdykol
oil field in Kazakhstan where he has recently been working with the field
reserve auditors, Miller and Lents, of Houston, Texas to prepare a detailed
development plan. This work has confirmed initial estimates of approximately
22m barrels of in-situ oil resources.

An appraisal programme is already in progress at Tamdykol, and four test wells
will be drilled in the field this year prior to production drilling in 2002.
it is expected that the test wells will yield oil, but full information on the
field and its economic potential will not be available until later this year.
Then, reserves and production estimates will be prepared.

Further Information:

Kevin Foo/Claire Bolton, Celtic Resources Holdings Plc. Tel: [phone]

Ron Marshman, City of London PR Limited. Tel: [phone]

Nigel Heneghan, Heneghan Public Relations. Tel: [phone]

www.celticresources.com e-mail: [e-mail]



19 July, 2001