PRESS RELEASE Malabo – 29th March, 2006 2006 Licensing Round The Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy and GEPetrol are pleased to announce the opening of the Equatorial Guinea 2006 Licensing Round. Bids are being sought for all available open acreage. The Licensing Round is scheduled to close on October 31st, 2006. The Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy will be holding road shows for the Licensing Round in Houston and London in May, 2006. Companies interested in bidding in the 2006 Licensing Round will first have to pre-qualify. The pre-qualification document must be completed and submitted to the Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy no later than Friday June 16th, 2006. The pre-qualification document must be accompanied by the pre-qualification processing fee. Pre-qualification documents submitted without the accompanying processing fee will not be considered. Companies who successfully pre-qualify will be notified by the Ministry by Friday June 30th, 2006 and will be invited to bid on their selected blocks. Companies already operating in Equatorial Guinea do not have to pre-qualify. The Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy and GEPetrol will have a data room available in London for interested companies to view available data. The data room will be open to companies on an appointment only basis. The Ministry of Mines, Industry and Energy and GEPetrol also have data packages, relevant to specific areas, available for purchase. Purchase of data packages will be a pre-requisite for licence applications. Further details of the Pre-qualification Documents, Draft Guidelines for Bidders, Model Contract, the 2006 Hydrocarbon Law, Bidding Parameters, Licence Round Seminars, Data Room availability and Data Packages, will be posted on this website in the near future.