Final Results

19 September 2011

NIGHTHAWK ENERGY PLC

("Nighthawk" or the "Company")

Results for the year ended 30 June 2011

Nighthawk, the US focused oil development and production company (AIM: HAWK and OTCQX: NHEGY), announces its final results for the year ended 30 June 2011.

Financial Highlights

·; Revenues from continuing operations of US$0.91 million (2010: US$2.15 million)

·; Reduction of 59% in capital expenditure to US$12.5 million (2010: US$30.4 million)

·; Loss on disposal of Revere project of US$43.1 million plus impairment charges totalling US$25.2 million on Cliffs and Cisco Springs projects

·; £25 million equity draw down facility entered into with Darwin Strategic

Operational Highlights

·; Strategic review completed resulting in focus on Jolly Ranch shale oil project

·; Recompletion operations at Jolly Ranch Project increase production and better the understanding of optimal completion techniques

·; Schlumberger report confirms increased estimates of Oil Initially in Place over part of the Jolly Ranch Project

·; Gaffney, Cline & Associates reserves report defines first reserves over a small part of the Jolly Ranch Project

·; Board and senior management significantly strengthened with new appointments

·; Deriving further value from and increasing operational exposure to the Jolly Ranch Project continues to be a key focus

The audited report and accounts will be available on the Company's website shortly and will be posted to Shareholders, as applicable, together with the notice of Annual General Meeting in due course.

Enquiries:

CEO's Statement

Nighthawk holds a 50% interest in the Jolly Ranch Group Project ("Jolly Ranch"), covering 410,000 gross acres in Lincoln, Elbert and Washington Counties, Colorado. Jolly Ranch has multiple conventional and non-conventional oil bearing horizons. The primary targets are the Pennsylvanian age Cherokee and Atoka shales.

Following the management changes of 29 September 2010, the first objective was to set clear attainable objectives for the Group in order to restore shareholder confidence and create value. The immediate focus was to shore up finances so that the changes required to orientate the Group for moving forward could be made from a sound footing.

This led to the Board arranging the Equity Drawdown Facility with Darwin Strategic, part of Evolution Group, in October 2010. The structure of the Darwin equity facility allows the Company to draw down at its discretion to support the Balance Sheet.

At the same time, a Strategic Review was initiated, and in late November 2010 this concluded that only projects with strong potential for returning value to shareholders, on the basis of on-going capital requirement versus return, should be the Group's focus. To this end, the Group resolved to reduce materially or eliminate its future capital commitments on all projects except the Jolly Ranch Shale Oil project in the Denver Basin. This was achieved by reassigning its interests in such projects to the operator whilst retaining either an over-riding royalty interest and/or a share in any potential future sale within certain specific time frames.

The focus on the Jolly Ranch project, reflecting the outcome of the Strategic Review, was to ensure as much value and - more importantly given the early stage of development - knowledge, was extracted from the existing wells on the project. Subsequently, a low-cost work-over programme was therefore initiated by the operator to complete in zones not previously opened, with a particular focus on the Cherokee, and also to look at recompleting in zones previously undertaken with a view to maximising production from the existing wells. This has led to an improvement in the production rates seen at the field, and has also led to a number of conclusions about future completion and stimulation practices to apply.

Following the period of review and consolidation, the ongoing strategy was to build for growth, and to put in place a team which would be able to provide a more operationally focused outlook. To this end, the Group - in June and August 2011 respectively - hired Richard Swindells as Chief Financial Officer and Chuck Wilson as Chief Operating Officer. Richard brings over 15 years of investment banking experience and Chuck over 30 years of drilling and completions experience, much of it focused on tight reservoirs in the Rocky Mountains.

In addition to the new appointments on the Executive Team, Stephen Gutteridge was appointed on 8 September 2011 as Non-Executive Chairman, with Michael Thomsen remaining Executive Director and President of US Operations. Stephen has extensive senior management and board experience in the oil and gas sector and his appointment brings an additional layer of corporate governance and commercial experience as Nighthawk continues its growth.

The Directors firmly believe that the Jolly Ranch Project represents a highly promising, albeit early stage, shale oil project with significant value potential for shareholders. The Directors recognise the importance to the USA's energy demands of domestic, onshore shale oil production and note that there has been significant, recent acquisition activity in early stage shale oil acreage in the USA, often involving acreage at a significantly earlier stage than the Jolly Ranch Project.

Progress has been made in terms of identifying the correct completion and stimulation practice required to extract as much oil in as economical fashion as possible from the target horizons. The task going forward is to refine this technique, ascertain why certain formations are good producers and how these "sweet spots" can be identified and then exploited.

We continue to position the Company with a view to increasing the operational input into the Jolly Ranch project. The Board is reviewing a number of financing options, including raising equity, to achieve the corporate and strategic objectives of the Group.

CFO's Statement

The financial results for the year ended 30 June 2011 have begun to reflect the changes to the operations of the Group, due to the instigation of our Strategic Review and consequently restructured asset base following the management changes announced on 29 September 2010.

Revenues and costs

As a result of the restructuring announced in November 2010, the Group exited certain projects during the year that reduced revenues from continuing activities 58% to US$0.91 million (2010: US$2.15 million). However, the corresponding cost reductions as a result of actions taken by the Board also saw capital expenditure reduced by 59% in the year to US$12.5 million (2010: US$30.4 million).

During the year, two wells at the Jolly Ranch Project, the Craig 16-32 and the Craig 4-4, either achieved or are approaching 20,000 bbls of cumulative production over their life to date. As a result, investments in these wells were reassigned from intangible Exploration Costs to Production Assets under Plant and Equipment in the Balance Sheet, leading to a depreciation charge arising for these wells going forward over their estimated remaining useful lives. This treatment is industry standard and will be applied going forward to all wells meeting these criteria.

The Operating loss figure of US$28.4 million includes a number of cost items that are unrelated to the on-going operations of the business, including US$2.01 million of charges relating to the impairment of the Cliffs project in Illinois, and US$23.22 million impairment of Cisco Springs in Utah - which has now been fully impaired.

Financing

The Darwin facility, which was signed in October 2010, was used twice during the financial period, drawing down a total of £5.175 million; £3.275 million in November 2010 and £1.90 million in February 2011. As a result, the number of warrants granted to Darwin under this facility to subscribe for new shares is capped at a maximum of 3,000,000 ordinary shares, such warrants to be exercisable at a price of 20 pence per share at any time prior to 13 October 2013.

At the period end the Group held cash balances of US$2.0 million and had no debt.

Group financial control and processes

As part of the strengthening of the Group's management and control processes, a review of financial reporting procedures and processes has been undertaken, resulting in the Group implementing new financial control and reporting procedures and processes, with a focus on quality and the timely supply of information for management decision making.

Nighthawk is focused on ensuring full value from its assets and recognises that controlling costs is essential to maximise returns. The Group continues to focus on managing expenditure and ensuring that the Group's resources are appropriately allocated to deliver value.

Operational Overview

Jolly Ranch Group

Nighthawk holds a 50% interest in the Jolly Ranch Group Project ("Jolly Ranch"), covering 410,000 gross acres in Lincoln, Elbert and Washington Counties, Colorado. Jolly Ranch has multiple conventional and non-conventional oil bearing horizons. The primary targets are the Pennsylvanian age Cherokee and Atoka shales.

Modern drilling, historic logs and multiple third party verification by Schlumberger and Gaffney, Cline and Associates have demonstrated the areal extent and continuity of the shale horizons. Other macro properties such as mineralogy, organic content, hydrocarbon composition and thermal maturity have been established.

Progress has been made in terms of identifying the correct completion and stimulation practice required to extract as much oil in as economical fashion as possible from the target horizons. The task going forward is to refine this technique, ascertain why certain formations are good producers and how these "sweet spots" can be identified and then exploited.

The injection of capital into the project at this stage is not proportionate to the level of reserves that will be generated. That being said, the value creation from increasing production and the wider de-risking of the project are of considerable value.

During the year two independent reports were published as highlighted below.

Schlumberger

The Schlumberger report published in January 2011 focused on a small area around the core Craig Ranch area where the sustained production has been seen.

Schlumberger reported on Oil in Place within this area, but also simulated potential recovery and field performance with implications, given the uniformity of shale plays, for the wider field development.

The report not only concluded an approximate fourteen fold uplift in the Oil in Place within the shale horizons on the acreage studied, but also gave an initial assessment of the potential recovery from the shales. The Oil in Place is compared with the July 2009 Schlumberger study below:

A recovery rate was assessed on the basis of a number of prediction scenarios with various well and economic parameters and cut offs, and is presented for each of the horizons below for the modelled area based on vertical wells on 40-acre well spacing.

Gaffney, Cline and Associates

At the end of April 2011 Gaffney, Cline and Associates (GCA) concluded its study of reserves on the Jolly Ranch Project.

The declaration of Proved Reserves by GCA was limited to wells that are projected to recover 20,000 barrels or more. The declaration is based on Decline Curve Analysis, assigning reserves as defined by the SPE Petroleum Resources Management System ("PRMS"). Therefore, proved reserves were only attributed, at this stage, to two wells with continuous production from the Cherokee formation, namely the Craig 4-4 and Craig 16-32.

Furthermore, it should be noted that these reserves are limited to discrete interbedded Cherokee intervals within these wells. Other horizons, especially within the Atoka formation, have been excluded due to the current lack of adequate production data or the absence of data in the case of uncompleted horizons. The current and future work programme will focus on determining the correct method and optimum target within these other horizons to build value.

All of the reserves quoted below are gross, representing 100% of the working interest in the project.

Proved Reserves

The Craig 4-4 is completed in two Cherokee horizons; the Tebo between 6,644 ft and 6,664 ft and the Tebo 'B', between 6,705 ft and 6,711 ft. The Craig 16-32 is completed in the Cherokee 'A' between 6,526 ft and 6,530 ft.

The following table shows the predicted Estimated Ultimate Recovery for these wells from initial production, cumulative production, and Proved Reserves as at 19 March 2011. The decline curve analysis uses an exponential decline for Proved Reserves.

Probable Reserves

Incremental Probable Reserves have been estimated utilising a hyperbolic decline curve analysis for the Craig 16-32 well.

Inclusion of Contingent and Prospective Resources requires working interest lands to be developed and further wells to be drilled, which are likely to be both vertical and horizontal. Future production is estimated based on the projected recovery from the decline curves of analogous wells derived from the results of pilot projects.

The Jolly Ranch Cherokee/Atoka shale oil project is in the early stages of development, and is still in the process of determining the optimum completion and stimulation technique and the optimum intervals on which to apply these techniques. Given the low number of wells drilled to date compared to the potential development programme, the current set of wells with estimated ultimate recovery of 20,000 barrels or more (considered to be the economic minimum) is too small to extrapolate across the wider project area with statistical confidence.

In addition, as directly analogous plays are rare, the type curves are unique to each play and it will take more wells to fully develop confident projections of ultimate recovery.

Additional recompletions and further drilling/stimulation have to be undertaken to increase and confirm the body of knowledge such that it can be consistently and prudently applied to a wider area. As such, it would be misleading to generate a resource estimate at this time without more wells with successful completions, as well as further production track record.

Production

Production volumes from the project continue to be a focus as Initial Production ("IP") rates and long-term production profiles are a key factor in determining value in the shale play.

Ongoing test production means that wells are producing as the performance of the acidisation and fracturing method applied is observed. It can take many weeks for an acidised or fracced well to settle into stabilised flow and the type curve, a profile of a "typical" well, can be developed.

Shale wells are developed by drilling wells as the work needed to understand the completion methodology has to be undertaken in the well bore; the more wells that are drilled, the greater the confidence and understanding of the shale leading to a greater number of wells that can be brought into production.

The total net production for the financial year reported on, with applicable Colorado State Taxes and Royalty payments to the landowners was 12,190 bbl and Q2 production as below.

Strategic Review

The conclusion of the Strategic Review, undertaken in October 2010, was to focus primarily on the Jolly Ranch project, exit the Revere and Cliffs projects and actively consider disposal options for the Cisco Springs project. The accounting effect of these actions is reflected in these full year results as follows:

Revere Project

The project was disposed of to the Operator with effect from 31 December 2010, and the Group no longer has any liability associated with the project. The Group has recorded a loss on disposal of US$43.08 million in relation to the disposal of the asset whilst retaining an asset in the Balance Sheet for the Over Riding Royalty of 5% of gross production for three years.

The Group will also receive 25% of any future sale undertaken before 31 December 2013.

Cisco Springs

The Cisco Springs Project was impaired in the 2011 interim accounts by US$21.26 million; a further US$1.96 million has been impaired at 30 June 2011 as the asset does not contribute to the ongoing business. Methods to dispose of the asset continue to be actively appraised.

Cliffs

No wells have been drilled on the Cliffs project and the leases were allowed to lapse following the Strategic Review. Costs of US$2.01 million have been written down with respect to this project.

Consolidated Income Statement

for the year ended 30 June 2011

Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Income

for the year ended 30 June 2011

Consolidated Balance Sheet

as at 30 June 2011

Consolidated Statement of Changes in Equity

for the year ended 30 June 2011

Consolidated Cash Flow Statement

for the year ended 30 June 2011

Notes to the Consolidated Financial Information

for the year ended 30 June 2011

1 Segmental Reporting

Operating segments

The Group has only one operating segment: the production of, exploration for and investment in hydrocarbons in one geographical area, the United States of America.

The Group has one main customer, representing 100% respectively of the sales revenue.