Mauritania Drilling Update

Roc Oil Company Limited
01 February 2005





1 February 2005


                        ROC OIL COMPANY LIMITED ('ROC')
                              STOCK EXCHANGE RELEASE

                      MAURITANIA OFFSHORE DRILLING UPDATE

ROC advises that the following release was made earlier today by Woodside
Petroleum Limited:

'Woodside Mauritania Pty Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Woodside Petroleum
Ltd., reports the following activity offshore Mauritania since the last report
issued on 18 January 2005.

                                 PSC-B, Block 4
                    Tiof-6 and Chinguetti Development wells

Tiof-6 Appraisal well
The 'West Navigator' drill ship returned as planned to the Tiof-6 Appraisal Well
location on 28 January to conduct a production test. Tiof-6 was previously
suspended on 17 January 2005 at a total depth of 2,963 metres after intersecting
a gross oil column of approximately 124 metres containing several individual
sands of variable thickness.

At midnight on 31 January 2005 preparations to production test the well were
underway.

Chinguetti Development wells
The 'Stena Tay' drill rig continued operations on Chinguetti Development wells.
The 'West Navigator' was released from Chinguetti operations on 27 January 2005
to resume operations on the Tiof-6 Appraisal well. Woodside does not plan to
issue announcements regarding operations on Chinguetti development wells, but
will do so if necessary to comply with its continuous disclosure obligations
under the ASX Listing Rules.

All reported drilling depths are referenced to the rig rotary table and all
times are Universal Time (UTC) (Mauritanian time).

The locations of the Chinguetti Oil Field, the Tiof and Banda discoveries and
exploration wells are shown on the attached map*.

Wells are expected to be drilled in two production sharing contract areas during
the remainder of the 2005 campaign.'
Participating Interests in the areas are:

          +-----------------------------------+-----------+----------+
          |              Company              |   PSC-A   |  PSC-B   |
          +-----------------------------------+-----------+----------+
          |Woodside group companies (Operator)|  53.846%  | 53.846%  |
          +-----------------------------------+-----------+----------+
          |Hardman group companies            |   24.3%   |  21.6%   |
          +-----------------------------------+-----------+----------+
          |BG group companies                 |  13.084%  |  11.63%  |
          +-----------------------------------+-----------+----------+
          |Premier group companies            |    --     |  9.231%  |
          +-----------------------------------+-----------+----------+
          |Fusion group companies             |  4. 615%  |    --    |
          +-----------------------------------+-----------+----------+
          |Roc Oil group companies            |  4.155%   |  3.693%  |
          +-----------------------------------+-----------+----------+


*Map attached to the copy of this release on ROC's website
(http://www.rocoil.com.au/Pages/ASX_Releases/2005_Releases/February-2005.html)


Bruce Clement                            For further information please contact:
Chief Operating Officer                                         Dr John Doran on
                                                            Tel: [phone]
                                                            Fax: [phone]
                                                    E-mail: [e-mail]
                                                         Or visit ROC's website:
                                                               www.rocoil.com.au

                                                                   Dr Kevin Hird
                                            General Manager Business Development
                                                       Tel:  [phone]
                                                       Fax:  [phone]
                                                     Email:  [e-mail]

                                                                    Nick Lambert
                                            Bell Pottinger Corporate & Financial
                                                       Tel:  [phone]




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