Ascent Resources plc announces that its drilling campaign is now underway with the spudding of the PEN-104 well in Hungary.

PetroHungaria kft (a 90% owned subsidiary of Ascent), spudded the PEN-104 well on October 21, 2006. Partners in the well are DualEx of Canada (37.5%) and Petro Pequnia of Sweden (2%). This morning at 6am (local time) the rig was drilling ahead in 12-1/4" hole at 285m with a planned total depth (TD) of 1,350m.

PEN-104 is a re-appraisal well within the once productive Peneszlek gas field and targets gas reservoirs in the Pannonian clastics and the underlying Miocene tuffs.

The Peneszlek gas field produced a total of 4.8 bcf (136 mcm) of gas from six wells between 1983 and 1989. Re-mapping of the field using seismic data acquired in 2006 by PetroHungaria leads the parties to believe that significant reserves may be remaining.

Once PEN-104 drilling is completed, the rig will be moved to the FGY-2 location in the north part of the block. The group then has the option to drill two further wells in the western part of the acreage in the first half of 2007.