Syria update & appointment

Gulfsands Petroleum PLC
19 October 2006

Drilling Update - Tigris-1 well, Syria


Appointment of Director of Corporate Development


Expansion of London presence


London, 19th October, 2006: Gulfsands Petroleum plc (AIM: GPX), the oil and gas
production, exploration and development company with activities in the USA,
Syria and Iraq, is pleased to provide an update on drilling activity in Syria
and announce the appointment of Kenneth Judge to the Board of Directors as
Director of Corporate Development in parallel with the establishment of the
Company's new London office.


Tigris -1 Well


The Tigris-1 well in Block 26, Syria is drilling at a depth of 2,280 metres and
is estimated to take 90 to 120 days to drill and evaluate.  Drilling of Tigris-1
commenced on 10 September 2006.  The well is targeting a total depth of
approximately 4,500 metres.  The Company owns the deep rights in Tigris to oil
and gas contained in Paleozoic reservoirs, which will not be penetrated until
near the end of drilling this well.


Gulfsands has commenced the acquisition of an additional 266 kilometres of 2D
seismic in Block 26 for the purpose of finalizing the drilling program for the
first half of 2007.


Director of Corporate Development


With immediate effect, Kenneth Peter Judge OAM has been appointed as Director of
Corporate Development. Mr. Judge's role will primarily include corporate
strategy and liaison with the Company's institutional shareholder base.



Mr. Judge, is well known to the London investment community as a corporate
lawyer with extensive business management and corporate development experience
having held numerous public company directorships and more recently having been
engaged in the establishment or corporate development of oil and gas, mining and
technology companies in the United Kingdom, Middle East, USA, Australia, Europe,
Canada, Latin America and South East Asia. Mr. Judge has undergraduate and
post-graduate degrees in Commerce, Jurisprudence and Laws from the University of
Western Australia and was awarded an Order of Australia Medal in 1994.



Expansion of London Presence



In response to an anticipated increase in the Company's activity in the Middle
East, Gulfsands is establishing a London office at 33 Cavendish Square, London
W1G 0PW. This office will serve as the Company's corporate and technical
headquarters in support of activity in the City of London and operations in the
Middle East.




Gulfsands' CEO, John Dorrier, said:



'We are pleased to welcome Ken Judge to the Board.  Ken has a wide range of
relevant corporate development experience and will assist with shaping and
executing the Company's strategies and liaison with our largely Europe based,
institutional shareholders. The opening of our new London office should also
facilitate the Company's presence in the City and provide a home for an
expansion of our technical resources to support our operations in Syria and
Iraq.'





Further information required under AIM rules:-



Mr. Judge, aged 51, is also a director of Hidefield Gold plc, Brazilian Diamonds
Ltd., Alto Ventures Ltd., Columbus Gold Corporation, Empire Mining Corporation,
Block Shield Corporation plc and Carnarvon Petroleum Ltd. Within the last five
years, Mr. Judge was also a director of Latin American Minerals Inc., Piper
Capital Inc. and Forum Uranium Corporation.



Following Mr. Judge's appointment to the Board, he has been granted options over
400,000 ordinary shares of 5.714p each at £0.96 per share, exercisable by 18
October 2011.   Hamilton Capital Partners Limited, a company in which Mr. Judge
is beneficially interested, is the owner of 3,643,750 ordinary shares in
Gulfsands, which represents approximately 3.74% of Gulfsands' total issued share
capital.



There is no further information required to be disclosed in accordance with
Schedule Two (g) of the AIM Rules.



ABOUT GULFSANDS:



Gulf of Mexico, USA

The Company owns interests in 64 offshore blocks comprising approximately
216,000 gross acres which includes numerous producing oil and gas fields
offshore Texas and Louisiana with proved and probable recoverable reserves of
32.4 BCFGE, consisting of 19.8 BCFG and 2.1 MMBO.  As of 1st January 2006 these
were estimated to have a net present value of $183 million. In addition, the
Company's 2.8 BCFGE of possible recoverable reserves were estimated to have a
net present value of $15.8 million.



Syria

Gulfsands owns a 50% working interest and is operator of Block 26 in North East
Syria.  Block 26 covers 11,000 square kilometres and encompasses existing fields
which currently produce over 100,000 barrels of oil per day. These fields are
operated by third parties including the Syria Petroleum Company.



In January 2006 the Company completed the acquisition of 1,155 kilometres of 2D
seismic over three areas of Block 26 and following evaluation of this data,
commenced drilling of the Tigris-1 prospect on 10 September, 2006. The Tigris
structure is estimated to have the potential to contain in excess of 500 MMBOE.
Gulfsands has identified numerous exploration prospects and leads within Block
26 with mean resources potential exceeding 1 billion barrels of recoverable oil.



Ryder Scott recently completed a reserves study on the Tigris structure (the
report is available on the Gulfsands' website at www.gulfsands.net) and pending
the Company's drilling and testing of the Tigris structure, classified these
reserves as either oil or gas bearing. Ryder Scott assessed Gulfsands' net
Probable Reserves were 102 BCFG and had a net present value of $233 million.
Assuming a primarily natural gas accumulation, Ryder Scott estimated Gulfsands
had an additional net 75 BCFG of possible reserves with a net present value of
$261 million. All reserve estimations for Syria were calculated using a discount
rate of 10% and after applying the terms of the Production Sharing Contract
after Syrian taxes.



The Company has completed its own economic evaluation on the Prospective Gas
Resource and has estimated the Company to have a net Prospective Gas Resource of
577 BCFG with a net present value of approximately $1.06 billion.



In summary, Gulfsands' total net gas reserves potential among Probable and
Possible Reserves for the natural gas case is estimated at 177 BCFG (30 MMBOE)
with a net present value of $494 million. When combined with the Prospective Gas
Resource for an aggregate 754 BCFG (126 MMBOE), the net present value of
Gulfsands' interest are estimated to be valued at approximately $1.55 billion.



Ryder Scott estimated that for a primarily oil accumulation, the Possible
Reserves net to Gulfsands are 19.4 million barrels of oil with a net present
value of $452 million. Gulfsands has completed its own economic evaluation on
the Prospective Oil Resource and has estimated its net Prospective Oil Resource
at 50.9 MMBO with a net present value of approximately $1.51 billion.



In summary Gulfsands total net oil reserves potential among Possible and
Prospective Oil Resource for the oil case is estimated at 70.3 MMBO with a net
present value of approximately $1.96 billion.



Iraq

Gulfsands signed a Memorandum of Understanding in January 2005 with the Ministry
of Oil in Iraq for the Misan Gas Project in Southern Iraq and following
completion of a feasibility study on the project, is currently negotiating
details of definitive contracts for this regionally important development. The
project will gather, process and transmit natural gas that is currently a waste
by-product of oil production and as a result of the present practice of gas
flaring, contributes to significant environmental damage in the region.



Onshore USA

Gulfsands operates onshore in the USA through its 100% owned subsidiary company
Darcy Energy LLC which owns interests in two oil and gas fields onshore Texas,
USA (Emily Hawes and Barb Mag) with proved and probable recoverable reserves at
1 January 2006 of 1.6 BCFGE, consisting of 1.2 BCFG and 58,000 barrels of oil
with an estimated net present value of $9.5 million. Additionally, these fields
contain a further 2.2 BCFGE of possible recoverable reserves with an estimated
net present value of $7.9 million.



For further information including the Company's recent investor presentation,
please refer to the Company's website www.gulfsands.net or contact:



Gulfsands Petroleum (Houston)                                + 1-713-626-9564
John Dorrier, Chief Executive Officer
David DeCort, Chief Financial Officer

Gulfsands Petroleum (London)                                 (pending opening of office)
Kenneth Judge, Director of Corporate Development

College Hill (London)                                        020-7457-2020
Nick Elwes
Paddy Blewer

Teather & Greenwood (London)                                 020-7426-9000
James Maxwell (Corporate Finance)
Tanya Clarke (Specialist Sales)




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