Mauritania Offshore Update

Roc Oil Company Limited
11 January 2005


11 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 4 January 2005.

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

Tiof-6 Appraisal well

The 'West Navigator' drilled the Tiof-6 Appraisal well to the final total depth
of 2963 metres where the acquisition of wireline logs commenced. Preliminary
analysis of logs acquired while drilling and the wireline logs acquired so far
indicates the presence of an oil column. At midnight on 10 January 2005 wireline
logging was continuing. It is planned that the well will be suspended and tested
at a later stage.

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                                               Dr John Doran on
Chief Executive Officer                                 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