Drilling Update

Kea Petroleum plc

("Kea" or the "Group")

Drilling Update

Further to the announcement on 7 April, 2010, Kea is pleased to announce that the Ensign Rig 19 has now been released to the Group by Shell and is anticipated to start drilling the Wingrove-2 well later this week. Drilling is planned to deepen to approximately 1600m from the surface casing depth of 300m drilled by the smaller Interdrill rig. Well completion is expected before the end of April.

The Interdrill rig used to drill the top-hole at Wingrove-2 has now been moved to the other drill site, Beluga-1 to drill the top-hole there. Further updates will be announced in due course.

Kea Petroleum is an oil and gas exploration company with three petroleum exploration permits in Taranaki and Northland Basins of New Zealand.

For further information please contact:

Kea Petroleum plc Tel: +44 (0) 20 7340 9970

David, Lees, Executive Director

RBC Capital Markets Tel: +44 (0) 20 7653 4000

Matthew Coakes / Brett Jacobs / Daniel Conti Martin Eales (NOMAD)

Buchanan Communications Tel: +44 (0) 20 7466 5000

Tim Anderson / James Strong