Mauritania Drilling Update

Roc Oil Company Limited
05 October 2004


Roc Oil Company Limited
5 October 2004



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

                      MAURITANIA OFFSHORE DRILLING UPDATE

ROC advises that the following release was made this afternoon 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 28 September 2004.

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

Tiof-3 Appraisal well
The drill ship 'West Navigator' ran and cemented casing at 2145 metres on Tiof-3
and then drilled the well to a total depth of 2960 metres.

Preliminary assessment of logs acquired while drilling indicate the presence of
oil in the target interval.

At midnight on 4 October the current operation was preparing to run wireline
logs. The results of wireline logging will be reported once that program is
completed and evaluated. Following completion of wireline logging it is intended
to sidetrack, core and test the well as planned.

Tevet-1 Exploration well
The drill rig 'Stena Tay' arrived on location on 30 September and commenced
drilling operations on the bottom hole section of Tevet-1. The well was drilled
to a total depth of 2715 metres.

Preliminary assessment of logs acquired while drilling indicate the presence of
oil and gas bearing zones.

At midnight on 4 October the current operation was running wireline logs. The
results of wireline logging will be reported once that program is completed and
evaluated.

After completion of wireline logs, the well will be plugged and abandoned as
planned, and the 'Stena Tay' will move to drill the bottom hole of the Dorade-1
well, containing the target interval.

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%    |
    +------------------------------------+-----------+----------+----------+

John Doran, Chief Executive Officer of ROC commented that:

'The information currently available is preliminary and should not cause anybody
to jump to any particular conclusions. Logging and evaluation of the wells is
continuing and information regarding these results will be announced as soon as
it is available, after completion of the work.'

*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 ManagerBusiness Development
                                                        Tel: [phone]
                                                        Fax: [phone]
                                                     E-mail: [e-mail]
                                                                                
                                                   Ann-Marie Wilson/Nick Lambert
                                            Bell Pottinger Corporate & Financial
                                                        Tel: [phone]


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