Nido Petroleum announces that the Galoc Field Operator Galoc Production has advised that the drill ship 'Energy Searcher' has come on hire to the Galoc Project. This signals the start of the Galoc oil field development, the first offshore development in the Philippines for almost seven years.

The drill ship will remain in Singapore for about five days to load out the drilling and testing equipment, subsea trees and other materials prior to sailing to the field location, some 60km offshore from Palawan Island, Philippines.

The first Galoc well is scheduled to spud in early October and well construction activities are anticipated to continue until late December 2007, subject to weather.

In 2006 GPC contracted the drill ship ‘Energy Searcher’ on behalf of the Galoc Joint Venture to drill the two horizontal development wells in the Galoc structure.

Ms. Joanne Williams, Nido’s Deputy Managing Director said this is excellent news for the Galoc Project and Nido.

"Confirmation that the drill ship is now on hire means that the rubber is hitting the road on the Galoc development," Ms. Williams said.

"We expect to see first oil in the 1st quarter of 2008 and cash flow from the development will support Nido’s big hit exploration drilling program beginning in the second half of 2008," Ms. Williams said.