Drilling Report

Fusion Oil & Gas PLC
31 July 2001

                             Fusion Oil & Gas plc

                         ('Fusion' or 'the Company')

               Courbine-1A Exploration Well Offshore Mauritania

Fusion Oil & Gas plc reports results from its Courbine-1A exploration well
offshore Mauritania based on preliminary analysis of wireline logs. All depths
are referenced to the rig rotary table.

The Courbine-1A well reached a total depth of 4,452 metres.

Upper Cretaceous sandstones comprising the primary reservoir objective between
3,800 metres and 4,000 metres are interpreted to be water bearing with minor
hydrocarbon shows.

Tertiary sandstones comprising a secondary reservoir objective above 3,184
metres are interpreted to contain a 9 metre gas column.

The well was deepened beyond its prognosed total depth of 4,000 metres to
obtain additional geological information. Samples from this interval have been
collected and are being transported to a laboratory for analysis.

The Courbine-1A well lies within Production Sharing Contract (PSC) Area B.
Fusion's interest in PSC B is 6% and the Company is free-carried through the
drilling of the Courbine-1A well.

Courbine-1A was the second well by the Area B joint venture following
Chinguetti-1 which was announced in May earlier this year as an oil and gas
discovery. These were the first wells to test the deepwater petroleum system
in Northwest Africa and the data derived from them will be used to de-risk
future exploration in the region. As a consequence of the value of these data
the joint venture has adopted a policy of minimal disclosure of technical
information. Decisions regarding evaluation of the Chinguetti discovery and
further exploration activity will be made over the next 2 to 3 months.

Fusion's Managing Director, Dr Alan Stein, commented:

'While the results from Courbine 1-A are commercially disappointing we are
encouraged by the information we have received to date which appears to
confirm the presence of the basic ingredients of an exploration play in
addition to the Tertiary play fairway encountered by the Chinguetti-1
discovery well. This, in addition to the encouraging results from
Chinguetti-1, gives us cause for optimism regarding the presence of a
petroleum system in the region which will be commercially significant to
Fusion.'

                                                                  31 July 2001









For further details please refer to the company's web page
www.fusionoil.com.au or contact:

Fusion Oil & Gas plc           Tel      [phone]
Level 2 Scott House            Fax     [phone]
46 Kings Park Rd               e-mail [e-mail]
West Perth 6005
Western Australia

Alan Stein                     Managing Director
Jonathan Taylor                Exploration Director

Fusion Oil & Gas plc           Tel     [phone]
8 Old Lodge Place              Fax     [phone]
St. Margarets                  e -mail [e-mail]
Twickenham
Middlesex
TW1 1RQ
United Kingdom

Peter Dolan                    Chairman

College Hill Associates        Tel     [phone]
78 Cannon Street               Fax     [phone]
London EC4N 6HH
James Henderson                e-mail [e-mail]
Peter Rigby                    e-mail [e-mail]