22 March 2012

Sound Oil plc

("Sound Oil" or "the Company")

Jatayu Exploration drilling starts

Sound Oil, the upstream oil and gas company with assets in Italy and Indonesia, is pleased to announce the following update on its operations in Indonesia.

Citarum PSC, Java (Sound Oil 20%)

The Jatayu-1 exploration well commenced drilling at 21:30 local time on 21 March 2012.  The well will be drilled to a total measured depth of 8714 ft (2656 m) to target the limestones of the Miocene Parigi Formation.  Operations are scheduled to continue for 30 days.

The Jatayu prospect has been independently assessed by Fugro Robertson Limited to have gross P90-P50-P10 prospective gas resources of 140-290-530 Bscf (P50 58 Bscf net to Sound Oil with an NPV10 of US$30.3 million).

Gerry Orbell, Sound Oil's Chairman and Chief Executive commented:

"The Jatayu prospect is an exciting and significant exploration target for Sound which, should it be successful in the P50 case, is estimated to have an asset value to the Company of almost 1p per share. The prospect also has substantial upside potential.

The Jatayu well will be followed by exploration wells at Cataka and Geulis on the Citarum permit, all of which will be drilled by the same rig."

For further information please contact:

Notes:

1.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. "Bscf" means billions of standard cubic feet of gas; "P90", "P50" and "P10" refer respectively to 90%, 50% and 10% chances of finding a given volume and are consistent with SPE (The Society of Petroleum Engineers) guidelines; "NPV10" means estimated net present value using a discount rate of 10%.

2. If successful in determining P50 resources of 58Bscf net to the Company, the Competent Person Report values these at NPV10 US$30.3 million which is equivalent to approximately 0.9p per share.