Beach Energy Limited Stock Market Press Releases and Company Profile

Adelaide, Nov 7, 2008 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Beach Petroleum Limited (ASX:BPT)(PINK:BEPTF) is pleased to advise that the Ministry of Petroleum of the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt has approved deeds of assignment in respect of the North Shadwan and South East July concessions in the Gulf of Suez.

Pursuant to an agreement with Tri-Ocean Energy Company ("Tri-Ocean"), Beach has acquired a 20% interest in the North Shadwan Concession at a cost of US$110 million. Funds in US dollars for this acquisition were converted at an effective rate of AUD:USD of 0.9109 in July this year and have been held in escrow since then. On completion of the acquisition the interests in the concession will be held by BP Exploration (Delta) Limited (a subsidiary of BP plc) (50%), Tri-Ocean (30%) and Beach (20%).

The North Shadwan Concession is operated by BP Exploration (Delta) Limited and contains three existing undeveloped oil discoveries and several attractive exploration prospects. Government approval has been granted to develop two of these fields, close to the eastern shore of the Gulf. First production from these fields is planned for late in 2009. The third discovery (formerly NS394-1A and now named "Burtocal") is presently being appraised by a new well, Burtocal-2.

The Burtocal discovery was made in late 2007. The discovery well penetrated a thick oil column within the Nubia Formation, an extremely prolific reservoir across the Gulf of Suez. The Burtocal-2 appraisal well is testing separate fault compartments in the Burtocal structure and is designed to assist in delineating potential reserves to allow for evaluation of possible development options.

The South East July Concession contains several attractive oil prospects surrounded by existing oil fields, notably the July field (700 million barrels estimated ultimate recoverable (EUR)), the Ramadan field (600 million barrels EUR), the Morgan field (1.5 billion barrels EUR) and the recently commissioned Saqqara field (80 million barrels EUR).

Following completion of the transaction, which is via farmin arrangement with Santos Egypt Pty Ltd, the interests in this concession will be Santos Egypt (40% and Operator), Dana Petroleum (40%) and Beach (20%). The South July-1 well will be operated by Dana Petroleum and is planned to be drilled in December 2008 on a prospect approximately 10 km west of the Saqqara oil field. The South July-1 well will target potential reserves of up to 100 million barrels in stacked reservoir sands in the Miocene and Nubia Formations.

Equipment, pipelines and refining and processing capacity are well developed in the Gulf of Suez region and a skilled workforce is available, ensuring that field development can be optimised.

The acquisition of these concessions is a result of Beach's efforts to expand and diversify its operations to give the Company exposure to new oil production and to projects that have the potential to make material additions to its reserve base and production profile in the near future.

Beach looks forward to working closely with the relevant Joint Ventures and the Egyptian Authorities to progress the exploration and development of these concessions to the benefit of all parties.

Contact

Reg Nelson
Beach Petroleum
08 8338 2833

Mark Lindh
Adelaide Equity
0414 551 361

Ian Howarth
Farrington National
03 9223 2455


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