REPEAT/ Indo-Pacific Energy corporate review.

VANCOUVER, B.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 5, 1997--Over the past several months, the company was involved in several pre-drilling exploration programs in most of its New Zealand permits and has bid, and won, a new high profile concession in Australia's Northwest Shelf in the Timor Sea.

New Zealand-Onshore Taranaki Basin Petroleum Exploration Permit 38716/32.4%

The joint venture acquired an additional 25 miles of new seismic during February, which has confirmed the presence of both the Crown Prospect and the shallower Oru Prospect. Planning for the drilling of an exploration well late in 1997 to test the Crown Prospect is now in progress. PEP 38716 is adjacent to the Waihapa Oil Field where an individual well has flowed up to 10,000 barrels of oil per day from the Tikorangi Limestones and the field encompasses some of the world's most profitable oil wells, The Crown Prospect is also a Tikorangi Limestone objective and appears to be of similar size and structure to the Waihapa oil field.

Petroleum Exploration Permit 38720/50%

In this area, offsetting and north of the Ngatoro Oil Field, approximately 20 miles of new seismic was acquired over the Waitoriki Prospect area. This data is currently being processed prior to reinterpretation of the area. The deep Kapuni and shallow Mt. Messenger formation targets are in planning for exploration drilling later in the year. This permit is surrounded by four producing oil and gas fields and represents a good probability for exploration success.

Ngatoro Oil Field/5%

Oil production from the four currently producing Mt. Messenger wells has remained steady at 1,400-1,500 barrels per day. The field continues to give the company an excellent rate of return on its purchase price. Operating costs on the field have been reduced and proposals for workovers to further increase profitability are also being considered with joint venture partners. In addition, new wells are being contemplated on several drillable prospects that have good potential to provide more producing wells.

Petroleum Prospecting License 38706/4.45%

This area, which surrounds the Ngatoro Oil Field, has had no recent exploration work but has a number of possible drilling targets. It is anticipated that at least one well into the Mt. Messenger formation will be drilled in the forthcoming 12 months. This area also represents lower risk opportunities for success.

New Zealand-Onshore East Coast Basin Petroleum Exploration Permit 38330/34%

A 15 mile regional seismic line was successfully acquired over the main structural features of the basin, including the Matanui and Pauariki Antielines which have potential to be large size drilling prospects. Data quality appears to be good, and processing of this data is underway. Also, the old Waingaromia-1 well from the 1880s has been relocated, and it was confirmed that the well is still actively leaking hydrocarbons. Consideration is being given to drilling a new well alongside this 19th century oil producer.

Petroleum Exploration Permit 38328/40%

Following the encouragement from the recent drilling of the Kereru-1 exploration well, an extensive 120 mile seismic survey (approximately $1 million) over a number of areas where leads have been identified, is now completed. A data trade with the adjacent permit holders has provided additional new seismic indicating a previously unidentified structure within PEP 38328 near the northern boundary of the permit. Further exploration programs, either seismic or drilling await interpretation of the new data, now in process.

Papua New Guinea-Onshore Papuan Basin Petroluem Prospecting License 192/60%

The company and its partners were officially awarded PPL 192 (formerly PPL 178) in the western foreland basin in Jan. 1997. Indo-Pacific is currently reviewing existing data prior to designing its future exploration programs. This license is southwest of the recent Chevron-operated Moran discovery, which has reserves of at least 300 million barrels of oil, and which has been tested at record-breaking flow rates. The main areas of exploration focus in PPL 192 are the Kamu Prospect, which has potential to be a several-hundred-million barrel discovery, and the area surrounding the Langia gas discovery.

Australia-Offshore Northwest Shelf Ashmore Cartier/P19/65%

The company was awarded block AC/P19 in the Timor Sea, offshore Northwest Australia, in early April 1997. Surrounding blocks were awarded to many leading exploration companies including Nippon Oil  and Woodside (a Shell-BHP consortium) in a very strongly bid award round. Indo-Pacific is now planning its ongoing exploration strategy for this area. Also in this area, following the recent Cornea Discovery, Shell, Chevron and Cultus have bid a massive 46 firm wells in the next three years. In addition, the Elang/Kakatua fields will go into production within the year; the giant Undan/Bayu development (the largest gas discovery in the world in 1995) will start by year-end. This area of the Timor Sea is already demonstrating its potential with the discovery of numerous large to giant fields and will soon become one of the world's most active exploration areas, on a par with the North Sea in the 1970s.

China-Onshore Nanling and Wuwei Basins Technical Study Agreement/50%

Approximately 600 miles of existing seismic data from the Nanling and Wuwei Basins is being reprocessed in Shanghai for the company, as part of the ongoing evaluation of these areas. Conceptual planning and costing of exploration wells on the Hongzhuang Prospect in the Nanling Basin and the Longtangwan Prospect in the WuWei Basin is being completed, together with an assessment of the costs of additional seismic programs, in preparation for the next phase of work in these areas. The areas hold numerous potential drilling targets. Indo-Pacific holds exclusive rights to enter into Production Sharing Contracts for up to 30 years with China National Oil & Gas and Development Corp.

Corporate and Financial

Indo-Pacific's main focus is frontier basin exploration, however, the company's recent purchase of an interest in the producing Ngatoro Oil Field, together with interest income from working capital, has enabled the debt-free company to show its first profit in the first quarter of fiscal 1997. As the company nears completion of several seismic programs, management's main objective in the months ahead is the planning and drilling of exploration wells to test a number of medium and large-target prospects. Indo-Pacific is the operator of most of its projects and exploration is conducted through its technical offices in Wellington, New Zealand.

Indo-Pacific is an emerging oil and gas exploration and production company focused exclusively in the Asia-Pacific region. The company controls exploration concessions in four countries totaling over 6 million gross acres and is the largest holder of onshore exploration acreage in New Zealand.

On behalf of the board David Bennett, Ph.D. President & CEO 

CONTACT: IREMCO

Jennifer Muzzin, 604/682-6496