Mauritania Drilling Report

Roc Oil Company Limited
12 October 2004




                        ROC OIL COMPANY LIMITED ('ROC')
                             STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE

                      MAURITANIA OFFSHORE DRILLING UPDATE

ROC advises that the following release was made earlier today by Woodside
Petroleum Limited:

'Woodside Mauritania Pty Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Woodside Petroleum
Ltd., reports the following activity offshore Mauritania since the last report
issued on 8 October 2004.

                     PSC-B, Block 4 Tiof-3 ST1 and Tevet-1

Tiof-3 Appraisal well
At midnight on 11 October the current operation was coring the Tiof-3 ST1
sidetrack well. Following coring, wireline logging and testing of the well will
take place, as planned.

Tevet-1 Exploration well
The well was plugged and abandoned as planned and the 'Stena Tay' moved to drill
the bottom hole of the Dorade-1 well, containing the primary target.

                                     PSC-C2  Dorade-1

Dorade-1
The drill rig 'Stena Tay' arrived at the Dorade-1 location on 9 October. At
midnight on 11 October the current operation was preparing to re-enter the well.
The well has a planned total depth of approximately 2,650m.

All reported drilling depths are referenced to the rig rotary table and all
times are Universal Time (UTC) (Mauritanian time).

The locations of the Chinguetti Oil Field, the Tiof and Banda discoveries and
exploration wells to be drilled early in the 2004-05 drilling campaign are shown
on the attached map*.

Wells are expected to be drilled in three production sharing contract areas
during the campaign.'

Participating Interests in those areas are:

   +-------------------------------------+-----------+----------+----------+
   |               Company               |   PSC-A   |  PSC-B   |  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 group companies               |  4. 615%  |    --    |    --    |
   +-------------------------------------+-----------+----------+----------+
   |Roc Oil group companies              |  4.155%   |  3.693%  |   3.2%   |
   +-------------------------------------+-----------+----------+----------+
   |Energy Africa                        |    --     |    --    |   20%    |
   +-------------------------------------+-----------+----------+----------+

*Map attached to the copy of this release on Roc's website
(http://www.rocoil.com.au/Pages/ASX_Releases/2004_Releases/October-2004.html)

Bruce Clement                           For further information please contact:
Chief Operating Officer                                        Dr John Doran on
                                                           Tel: [phone]
                                                           Fax: [phone]
                                                   E-mail: [e-mail]
                                                        Or visit ROC's website:
                                                              www.rocoil.com.au


                                                                  Dr Kevin Hird
                                           General Manager Business Development
                                                      Tel:  [phone]
                                                      Fax:  [phone]
                                                    Email:  [e-mail]

                                                  Ann-Marie Wilson/Nick Lambert
                                            Bell Pottinger Corporate & Financial
                                                      Tel:  [phone]


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