Adelaide, Oct 31, 2006 (ABN Newswire) - A share placement to raise A$5.85 million has been made by Australian petroleum explorer, Po Valley Limited (ASX: PVE), as the Group prepares for production start-up next year from its gas projects in northern Italy.

The ASX-listed Po Valley announced today that it had agreed to issue three million shares at A$1.95 per share to US investor Harbinger Management Corporation and Australian investor Hunter Hall Investment Management which are 17.2% and 14.1% shareholders respectively in Po Valley.

The proceeds will be used to progress existing projects to production and evaluate and progress the recently announced five new additional exclusive licence applications.

The capital raising takes to 85.5 million, the number of ordinary Po Valley shares issued, capitalising the emerging gas producer at A$145 million, based on the closing share price of A$1.70 on 30 th October.

Earlier today, Po Valley announced that it had been awarded exclusive rights to proceed forward with an additional five gas and oil exploration licences in Italy - the main focus for the Australian company's exploration and production operations.

The additional licences cover a total area of 1,610 square kilometres and are all contained within the petroleum provinces in northern Italy where Po Valley has focused its maiden development of its first three projects - Sillaro, Vitalba and Santa Maddalena.

The licence applications which Po Valley will proceed forward with on an exclusive basis are Ossola and Opera near Milan and La Prospera, Podere Gallina and La Risorta near Bologna.

Based on the work initiated by Po Valley to date, the areas contain 8 new gas prospects and 2 new oil/gas field exploration targets.