Exploration Update

For immediate release 15 August 2011

Desire Petroleum plc

("Desire" or the "Company")

Exploration Update

Desire Petroleum plc (AIM:DES), the company wholly focused on the North Falkland Basin, notes the announcement made today by Rockhopper Exploration plc ("Rockhopper") regarding the prospective resources at its Sea Lion Main Complex ("SLMC").

Desire welcomes the update from Rockhopper, in particular its statement that the SLMC is believed to extend into licence PL004 (Tranche D), in which Desire has a 92.5% interest. However, since Desire does not have access to all the data upon which Rockhopper's evaluation is based, in particular the 14/10-6 well data, Desire is unable to confirm Rockhopper's interpretation at this stage. Nevertheless the results of this well are encouraging for the Shona lead which was previously identified from the raw stack data.

Desire's recently acquired fast track 3D seismic data for the northern part of Tranche D and the Ann prospect area continues to be interpreted as a priority and the results are expected to be available in September. A fully merged data set covering all Desire's prospective areas is expected to be available for interpretation towards the end of 2011.

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