Re: Rivara Gas Storage

Independent Resources PLC
11 September 2006


Further key step towards appraisal and development of major gas storage project


11 September 2006: Independent Resources plc (IRG), the AIM-quoted natural gas
storage and exploration company, has taken another significant step towards the
planned development of a strategic underground gas storage project at Rivara
near Bologna in northern Italy.

The company has submitted the results of a nine-month Environmental Impact Study
for approval by the Italian Environment Ministry. It is seeking clearance to
begin a €200 million appraisal and development programme, ready for Rivara to
come on stream in 2010.

The Rivara gas storage reservoir is a fractured limestone formation that offers
the opportunity to inject and withdraw natural gas rapidly to match seasonal
demand patterns and take advantage of the associated trading opportunities.

It lies alongside Italy's balancing point on the gas 'motorway' that
transports Europe's long-term gas supplies from North Africa, and could play a
key role in mitigating the effects of future gas shortages like the crisis which
hit Italy last winter. At full capacity of 3.2 billion cubic metres, it would
represent over 20% of Italy's current total gas storage and be larger than any
current gas storage site in the UK.

IRG Chairman Grayson Nash said: 'In completing this study, we have worked
closely with the regional and central authorities and stakeholders in order to
minimise administrative delays. The Italian authorities have been very focused
on fast-tracking vital energy infrastructural projects, in light of the
worsening gas crisis facing the country. We believe Rivara will prove crucial in
helping to secure and balance gas supplies both in Italy and more widely
throughout Europe.'

The Environmental Impact Study submitted by IRG identifies a wide range of
direct and indirect effects that the project would have on the local environment
C including its social impact.

Its submission for approval follows IRG's 2004 success in winning a concession
to develop and operate facilities at Rivara over a period of up to 40 years, and
is necessary to win re-confirmation of the concession.


For further information contact:

Stephen Staley, Managing Director, Independent Resources plc:      01332 865 253
                                                                   07771 838 753

Allan Piper, First City Financial Public Relations:                020 7436 7486
                                                                   07736 064 982



Background details follow:

The Environmental Impact Study submitted by IRG identifies, describes, and
assesses the various direct and indirect effects of a project and its
alternatives - including not developing the project - on man, the fauna, the
flora, the soil, water above and below ground,  the air, the climate, and the
landscape, as well as the interactions between and amongst the various effects.
These also include material, cultural, social, and environmental assets and the
various conditions to develop the project. The approach is based on preventive
action, in which the best policy is to minimize from the beginning any pollution
and adverse effects instead of combating them after the fact.

Italy's Comitato Tecnico Idrocarburi e Geotermica (CTIG), representing the
country's decision-makers from government, academia, and regulatory bodies for
subsurface hydrocarbon activity, recommended the award of the Rivara concession
to Independent Gas Management srl, now a wholly-owned subsidiary of IRG in July
2004, subject to approval of the environmental impact assessment now submitted.
Last year, it extended the concession life to the maximum currently allowable by
law (20 years plus two 10-year renewal periods).

Italy's existing gas storage capacity is located within depleted gas fields that
are intrinsically limited in terms of performance. They are filled and depleted
at more or less constant rates just once through the seasonal cycle. They have
good deliverability at the beginning of the winter season, but as they are
depleted, they become increasingly unable to sustain high flow rates.

In comparison, storing gas in a deep, naturally-fractured carbonate reservoir
like Rivara that is hosted in a huge saline aquifer has a number of significant
performance advantages.

First, from a financial standpoint, the need for so-called 'cushion-gas' - gas 
whose sole purpose is to provide pressure support for the reservoir - is 
minimised, saving heavy capital investment.

Cushion gas can account for up to 60 per cent of the total storage volume in a
typical sandstone reservoir. However, Rivara would require a much smaller volume
C approximately 14 per cent of its total capacity C because it relies instead on
the constant hydrostatic pressure of the aquifer below.

Second, the constant pressure within the Rivara UGS would enable it to deliver
gas quickly at high rates of withdrawal in response to demand fluctuations, and
to do so throughout the winter - something no other storage facility in Italy is
able to do.

Third, because flow-rates can be reversed quickly, additional gas volumes could
be injected into the Rivara UGS at any time in its cycle, providing valuable
commercial opportunities to take advantage of short-term as well as seasonal
fluctuations in the gas price.


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