Mauritania Drilling Update

Roc Oil Company Limited
19 October 2004



Roc Oil Company Limited
19 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 12 October 2004.

                                 PSC-B, Block 4
                           Tiof-3 ST1 and Tiof-3 ST2

Tiof-3 Appraisal well

Two cores were cut in the Tiof-3 ST1 sidetrack well to a depth of 2795 metres.
It was not possible to recover the second core to surface and the sidetrack was
abandoned. A second sidetrack in close proximity to the Tiof-3 location was
established and at midnight on 18 October the 'West Navigator' was coring the
Tiof-3 ST2 sidetrack well. Following coring, wireline logging operations will be
run and it is planned to conduct a flow test of the well.

                                     PSC-C2
                                    Dorade-1

Dorade-1 Exploration well

The 'Stena Tay' rig drilled the bottom hole section of the Dorade-1 well,
containing the primary target, to the final total depth of 2660 metres. Wireline
logs were acquired, and an evaluation of the logs indicated that no significant
hydrocarbons were encountered in the well.

Current operations are plugging and abandoning the well. The 'Stena Tay' will
subsequently move to the Capitaine-1A location where it will drill the well to
total depth.

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]



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