Ascent Resources plc announces that Energie Beheer Nederland BV ("EBN") will participate in the exploration of the P4, M8, M10 and M11 exploration licences in the Dutch Sector of the North Sea with a 40% interest, following the approval by the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs.

EBN, the Dutch State owned oil and gas company, participates in the exploration and production of most of the hydrocarbons in the Netherlands. Offshore, the licensee has the option to invite EBN to participate in the exploration stage. However the oil ministry will regardless, require a 40% participation of EBN if a discovery is made, whereby a production licence is issued unless participation of EBN is financially disadvantageous to the Dutch State. EBN is not a licence holder and will neither carry out exploration activities on its own initiative nor will it act as principal.

The applications for the P4, M8, M10 and M11 exploration licences, which cover an area of 795 square kilometres, were made following the analysis of seismic and exploration data purchased from the Netherlands Institute of Applied Geoscience ("TNO"). The technical work focuses on the newly recognized Carboniferous exploration plays as well as the traditional Rotliegend plays.