20 December 2011

Sound Oil plc

("Sound Oil" or "the Company")

Operations Update - Indonesia

Sound Oil, the upstream oil and gas company with assets in Italy and Indonesia, announces the following update on current operations in Indonesia.

Citarum PSC (Sound Oil 20%)

Sound Oil is pleased to confirm, consistent with previous announcements, that it expects the first well to spud prior to the end of 2011.  Despite some delays caused by heavy rainfall, operations on the Cataka-1 well continue and rigging-up of the ETP Rig No.2 on the site has commenced.  The well is scheduled to take 21 days to drill.  Cataka-1 will be drilled as a deviated well to a total measured depth of 6995 ft (2132 m) to target P50 gross prospective resources of 470 Bscf.  Immediately after Cataka the rig will move to drill the Jatayu and Geulis prospects.

Bangkanai PSC (Sound Oil 5% carried)

The operator, Salamander Energy, has informed Sound Oil that an upgrade of the Drillco No.1 rig for high temperature/high pressure operations is underway with the rig now expected to mobilise to Kalimantan in January and drilling expected to commence in April 2012.  The development of the Kerendan gas field, however, remains on target.

Commenting on this update Gerry Orbell, Sound Oil's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer said:

"We are pleased to confirm the imminent spud of the first exploration well in Citarum and look forward to a busy drilling season for the Company on both licences."

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 The information contained in this announcement has been reviewed by Sound Oil's Chief Operating Officer, Dr M. J. Cope BSc PhD CGeol FGS, a qualified petroleum geologist. The basis of the prospective resources estimate referred to above is consistent with SPE (The Society of Petroleum Engineers) guidelines and was provided by Fugro Robertson Limited in a Competent Person's Report prepared for Sound Oil in October 2011; "Bscf" means billions of standard cubic feet of gas.