Placing and Admission to AIM

Rockhopper Exploration plc
15 August 2005


Press Release
15 August 2005

                           Rockhopper Exploration plc
                    Placing and first day of dealing on AiM

                              Placing raises £15m

Rockhopper Exploration plc ('Rockhopper' or 'the Company'), the oil and gas
exploration company with a number of licences in the North Falkland Basin, today
announced that following the successful placing of 35,714,285 shares at 42p to
raise £15 million (before expenses), its shares have been admitted to trading on
AIM and dealings will commence at 8.00am today under the symbol: RKH.

Arden Partners Ltd is the Nominated Adviser, Joint Financial Adviser and Broker,
HSBC Bank plc is the Joint Financial Adviser and Ambrian Partners Ltd is acting
as Joint Broker to the Company.

Placing statistics

Placing price                                                                42p
Number of Placing Shares                                                   35,714,285
Number of Ordinary Shares in issue immediately following Admission         71,774,605
Percentage of the Enlarged Share Capital being placed                     50 per cent
Expected market capitalisation following the Placing at the Placing Price      £30.1m
Gross proceeds of the Placing receivable by the Company                          £15m
Net proceeds of the Placing receivable by the Company                          £13.9m

The Rockhopper Group is currently the largest licence holder in the North
Falkland Basin and owns a 100 per cent interest in four offshore production
licences which cover approximately 5,800 sq. km. An extensive 2D (640sq. km.)
and 3D (685sq. km.) seismic programme is planned.

In addition, the Group has signed a farm-in agreement with Desire Petroleum plc
whereby Rockhopper will earn up to a 15 per cent working interest in two further
licences covering approximately 1,300 sq km by funding up to 30% of the costs of
a three well drilling programme to be carried out during 2006 subject to a
suitable drilling rig being available.

The North Falkland Basin has previously been subject to exploratory drilling,
with six wells being drilled in 1998. These wells proved the existence of a
world class source rock, with the British Geological Survey estimating that it
may be the second richest source rock in the world. One well flowed live oil to
the surface, and another flowed gas to the surface.

The company has a highly experienced board, led by Dr Pierre Jungels, who was
the CEO of Enterprise Oil plc from 1996 to 2001.

Pierre Jungels, Executive Chairman of Rockhopper, said:

'I am delighted with the support we have had from institutions and new
shareholders. The proceeds of the placing will allow us to carry out our seismic
and drilling programmes, in what is a hugely prospective area.'

For further information, please contact:

Rockhopper Exploration plc
Sam Moody - Managing Director                                  Tel: [phone]

Arden Partners Ltd
Paul Davies                                                   Tel: [phone]

Aquila Financial Ltd
Peter Reilly  [e-mail]                Tel: [phone]

www.rockhopperexploration.co.uk

Notes to editors:

The Rockhopper Group started trading in February 2004 to invest in and carry out
an offshore oil exploration programme to the north of the Falkland Islands. The
Group is currently the largest licence holder in the North Falkland Basin and
owns a 100 per cent. interest in four offshore production licences which cover
approximately 5,800 sq. km. These licences have been granted by the Falkland
Islands government.

In total, the Board and its Consultant, the Falklands expert David Bodecott,
have over 120 years experience in the oil industry, with specific expertise in
the field of exploration and in the region itself.

The Falkland Islands

Licence awards: the group has been awarded four production licences situated in
the North Falkland Basin. The four licences are situated in two groups, licences
PL023 and PL024 (awarded in November 2004) and PL032 and PL033 (awarded in June
2005). All four licences have been awarded under the Open Door Production
Licence legislation. The Rockhopper Group has a 100 per cent working interest
and is the operator of these four licences, and is the largest licence holder in
the North Falkland Basin with an area of approximately 5,800 sq. km.

Fiscal regime: the fiscal regime in the Falkland Islands is attractive to oil
exploration companies, especially when compared to other areas of the world. The
current legislation is based largely on the UK North Sea oil industry and, once
production commences, provides for royalty payments of 9 per cent and
corporation tax of 25 per cent, meaning that corporation tax payable by the
Company should be no more than standard UK rates. The benign fiscal regime means
that the minimum economic threshold at which oil or gas can be produced is
relatively low.

Geology: The Falkland Islands lie in the South West Atlantic Ocean at the
nearest point 300 miles distant from Argentina, at the western end of the
Falkland Plateau, and the South American continental crust that extends towards
South Georgia. The North Falkland Basin comprises two main structural elements:
a north-south trending graben and a set of subsidiary basins to the west and
south of the graben which are controlled by a north-south trending extensional
fault but constrained by northwest and southeast orientated reactivated
Palaeozoic thrust sheets, the main North Falkland graben is about 50km wide at
its northern end and about 30km wide near its southern margin, which is 36 km
north of the Falkland Islands. As presently mapped, it is 230 km long but this
may extend further to the northeast.

The basin contains a late Jurassic to early Cretaceous lacustrine source rock of
world class quality. The source is mature in its lower parts and could have
expelled 100 billion barrels of oil, much of which is thought by the British
Geological Survey to be still trapped beneath the regional seal formed by the
non-mature, uppermost part of the lacustrine interval. This regional seal,
formed by the uppermost section of the thick source rock, appears to have
prevented the oil from migrating upwards and made it more likely to have
migrated towards the basin margins or into sands older than the source rock.
None of the wells drilled to date in the Basin have targeted sands within or
beneath the source rock or on the margins of the Basin and, as such, the
Directors believe that these targets represent a major untested oil play.

Operating conditions: the operating conditions within the North Falkland Basin
are relatively benign. The water depths are reasonable and in the main range
from 150 to 500 metres. These depths are not dissimilar to those found in the
North Sea and such depths are not technically demanding and as such, no bespoke
equipment or technology will be required for either exploration or development.
In addition, previous experience suggests that drilling progress is rapid and
there are no unusual near-bottom currents and no known gas hazards.

Cost environment: the Falkland Islands is a remote location in terms of the
world's established hydrocarbon infrastructure. Consequently, within the
economic analysis of the prospects, whilst the costs associated with the
technical demands of any development project are expected to be in line with
international comparisons, the remoteness of the location is expected to lead to
higher transportation costs of both delivering the oil to the market and
providing the necessary equipment and manpower. Hence the directors believe that
both the capital and operating costs will be generally above those encountered
in other hydrocarbon producing and frontier regions.

Directors and Senior Management

Dr. Pierre Jungels, CBE, aged 61, Executive Chairman
Dr. Jungels, a certified engineer, joined Rockhopper in February 2005. He has a
PhD in geophysics and hydraulics from the California Institute of Technology and
has 30 years experience in the oil industry, 12 of which have been served at
main board level, including appointments as Chief Executive of Enterprise Oil
Plc and managing director roles at PetroFina SA and British Gas. He currently
holds non-executive directorships at Imperial Tobacco plc, Woodside Petroleum
Ltd, Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping plc (chairman) and Offshore Logistics, Inc. He
was twice president of the Institute of Petroleum.

Samuel Moody, aged 35, Managing Director
Mr Moody is a co-founder of Rockhopper and has been responsible for building and
managing the group from its formation in early 2004. He previously worked in
several roles within the financial sector at companies including AXA Equity &
Law Investment Management and St Pauls Investment Management, where he was an
investment director. He is a Fellow of the Securities Institute.

Peter Dixon-Clarke, aged 39, Finance Director
Mr Dixon-Clarke joined Rockhopper in 2004. He qualified as a chartered
accountant with Deloitte & Touche LLP in the financial services group. He left
Deloitte & Touche in 1995 to work at what is now Amlin plc to head up the
financial affairs of the group's biggest division, seeing it through the Lloyd's
market turnaround and subsequent group flotation. Since then he has filled the
finance director role on a number of projects.

Keith Williams, aged 58, Exploration Director
Mr Williams joined Rockhopper in 2004 and has over 34 years experience in the
oil and gas industry and is a graduate geologist from the University of London.
Trained as a geophysicist, Keith has held senior geophysical positions with
Mobil, British National Oil Corporation (BNOC), Hudbay Oil (BP/Lasmo) and was
also director of exploration for Kerr-McGee Oil (UK) Ltd in London. Keith has
gained his exploration experience in the UK North Sea, Norway, Denmark,
Venezuela, Indonesia, Afghanistan, the Middle East, Africa and Russia.

Richard Visick, aged 38, Non-Executive Director
Mr Visick is a co-founder of Rockhopper and is a lawyer having qualified with
Linklaters. He has built up a portfolio of successful private equity
investments. He is the beneficial owner of Sea Lion Lodge, the premier wildlife
destination in the Falkland Islands, which is located on Sea Lion Island and he
is also the beneficial owner of Weddell Island, which is the largest privately
owned island in the Falkland Islands.

John Crowle, aged 51, Non-Executive Director
Mr Crowle, a trained geologist, has international exploration and production
experience from roles at BP, LASMO, Enterprise Oil and Shell. His time at BP
included involvement in its work in the UK, Norway, Egypt and the Mediterranean
area. At Enterprise he was a key player in the company's entry to Italy, France
and Denmark, and subsequently held senior roles in its UK North Sea and Vietnam
businesses. For three years he was general manager of Enterprise Oil's Norwegian
subsidiary, where production grew under his stewardship to over 100,000 barrels
of oil equivalent per day. In 2002 he returned to the UK where he was acting
exploration director. After Shell's
acquisition of Enterprise in the same year, John worked for Shell as general
manager of the Morocco and Pakistan exploration ventures.

Chris Walton, aged 48, Non-Executive Director
Chris Walton was the finance director and chief financial officer of Easyjet Plc
between 1999 and 2005, where he successfully directed its flotation in 2000.
Prior to that he held senior posts at Qantas Airways, Air New Zealand,
Australian Post and Australian Airlines. He has also worked at BP Australia, RTZ
Hamersley Iron, the Australian Senate and Western Australian Government. He is a
member of the Bank of England's Regional Economic Advisory Panel (South East and
Anglia).

In addition, the Board is advised by David Bodecott who acts as a consultant
geologist to the Company.

David Bodecott, consultant to the Board
David has been an independent consultant in petroleum geology and seismic
interpretation since 1981. He received a B.Sc. (Honours) in Geology from the
University of Hull in 1973, and a M.Sc. in Petroleum Geology in 1974 from the
Imperial College, London. He has worked for 31 years in the oil industry and is
a member of the Geological Society of London, the American Association of
Petroleum Geologists, the Energy Institute (formerly Institute of Petroleum) and
the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain. He has extensive
international experience, with much of his work focusing on seismic
interpretation. He has worked on the North Falklands Basin during all the active
exploration phases since the initial licensing round in 1996.







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