Yemen - Spudding of Well

Soco International PLC
08 September 2005

                             SOCO International plc
                           ('SOCO' or 'the Company')

                     Spudding of Exploration Well in Yemen


SOCO is an international oil and gas exploration and production company,
headquartered in London traded on the London Stock Exchange and a constituent of
the FTSE 250 Index. The Company has continuing interests in Vietnam, Yemen,
Libya, Thailand and the Republic of Congo with ongoing production operations in
Yemen.

The Company's majority owned subsidiary, Comeco Petroleum, Inc. ('Comeco'),
through which the Company holds a 16.785% net working interest in the East
Shabwa Development Area in Yemen ('ESDA'), announces the commencement of
drilling on the Kharir North prospect.  The KHA-3-07 well (previously referred
to as the KHA 407 prior to the revised well numbering system agreed with the
Yemeni authorities) spudded on the 31st of August and is the first well
targeting Basement on this prospect.

The KHA-2-17 (previously KHA-406) injector well that spudded on 11th June 2005
is currently being connected to the appropriate facilities prior to commencing a
water injectivity test.


                                                                8 September 2005


ENQUIRIES:


SOCO International plc
Roger Cagle                       Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Financial      Tel: [phone]
                                  Officer


Pelham Public Relations
James Henderson                   [e-mail]                    Tel: [phone]
Alisdair Haythornthwaite          [e-mail]           Tel: [phone]



Notes to Editors

Comeco, in which SOCO holds a 58.75% interest, has a 28.57% interest in the ESDA
in Block 10 in Yemen. The East Shabwa joint venture is operated by TOTAL Yemen,
S.A. (28.57% interest) under a production sharing agreement with the government
of Yemen. The other joint venture partners are Occidental Yemen Ltd. (28.57%
interest) and Kuwait Foreign Petroleum Exploration Co. (14.29% interest).



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