Mauritania Drilling Update

Roc Oil Company Limited
16 November 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 9 November 2004.

                                 PSC-B, Block 4
              Tiof-4 Appraisal Well and Tiof-3 ST2 Appraisal Well

Tiof-4 Appraisal Well

The 'Stena Tay' drill rig arrived at the Tiof-4 location on 9 November 2004 and
drilled the bottom hole section to a final total depth of 2,908 metres.

Evaluation of logs acquired while drilling and wireline logging operations,
including fluid sampling and downhole pressure measurements, has established
that the well intersected a gross oil column of approximately 113 metres,
containing several individual sands of variable thickness. The result was in
line with pre-drill expectations.

At midnight on 15 November 2004 the 'Stena Tay' was preparing to plug and
abandon the Tiof-4 appraisal well as planned. The 'Stena Tay' will then move to
the Merou-A location.

Tiof-3 ST2 Appraisal Well

During the week some mechanical problems have resulted in a delay to commencing
flow test operations. At midnight on 15 November 2004 the current operation was
continuing preparations to flow text the well.

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.'

Dr John Doran, Chief Executive Officer of ROC commented that:

'The net oil pay within the overall gross oil column drilled at Tiof-4 lies
within the 10% to 40% range established by the other discoveries and successful
appraisal wells in the area.

Participating Interests in the areas are:

      +------------------------------------------+-----------+----------+
      |                 Company                  |   PSC-A   |  PSC-B   |
      +------------------------------------------+-----------+----------+
      |Woodside group companies (Operator)       |  53.846%  | 53.846%  |
      +------------------------------------------+-----------+----------+
      |Hardman group companies                   |   24.3%   |  21.6%   |
      +------------------------------------------+-----------+----------+
      |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%  |
      +------------------------------------------+-----------+----------+

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

Bruce Clement                                 For further information please
Chief Operating Officer                                             contact:
                                                            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 Wilkinson/Nick Lambert
                                            Bell Pottinger Corporate & Financial
                                                      Tel:  [phone]





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