Mauritania Offshore Drilling

Roc Oil Company Limited
04 January 2005


4 January 2005


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 21 December 2004.

                                 PSC-B, Block 4
                    Tiof-6 and Chinguetti Development wells

Tiof-6 Appraisal well

The Tiof-6 appraisal well was spudded by the 'West Navigator' drill ship on 28
December 2004 in 1165 metres of water. The 18 1/2 inch hole was drilled to 2212
metres where the 13 3/8 inch casing was set. At midnight on 3 January the
current operation was preparing to drill ahead to the planned total depth of
approximately 2750 metres.

Chinguetti Development wells

The 'Stena Tay' drill rig continued operations on Chinguetti Development wells.
Woodside does not plan to issue announcements regarding operations on Chinguetti
Development wells, but will do so if necessary in order to comply with its
continuous disclosure obligations under the ASX Listing Rules.

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 are shown on the attached map.

Wells are expected to be drilled in two production sharing contract areas during
the remainder of the 2005 campaign. Participating Interests in those 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%  |
        +--------------------------------------+-----------+----------+

                                                                               '

For further information please contact: Dr John Doran, Chief Executive 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]
                                                                            
                                                                Nick Lambert
                                        Bell Pottinger Corporate & Financial
                                                   Tel:  [phone]
                                                                            


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