MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Rockhopper Exploration plc: Placing to raise up to GBP1.32 million

Rockhopper Exploration plc (the “Company”) is pleased to announce a placing (the “Placing”) of up to 3,588,700 new ordinary shares (the “Placing Shares”) at a subscription price of 37 pence each (the “Placing Price”) by Teather & Greenwood Limited with institutional and other investors to raise up to £1,328,000 (before expenses).

The Placing Price represents a discount of approximately 6.33 per cent. to the closing middle market price of an ordinary share on 5 March 2007, the day preceding the date of this announcement. The Placing Shares equal, in number, 4.98 per cent of the ordinary shares currently in issue and (assuming full subscription under the Placing) will represent 4.74 per cent. of the Company's enlarged issued share capital immediately following the Placing (undiluted) of 75,663,305 ordinary shares. It is expected that certain directors of the Company will subscribe for a total of 189,189 Placing Shares under the Placing. The Placing is not underwritten. Dr. Pierre Jungels, Executive Chairman of Rockhopper Exploration, said: "The continuing support of existing shareholders is greatly appreciated and we are pleased to welcome our new shareholders to the unfolding Rockhopper Exploration story. The funds raised from the Placing will be used for general purposes, including advanced investigation of the new 3D seismic which covered the two wells drilled by Shell in 1998, one of which recovered live oil to the surface." The Placing Shares will rank on their issue pari passu in all respects with the existing issued ordinary shares. Application will be made for the Placing Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM. It is expected that they will be admitted to trading on AIM on 9 March 2007. Rockhopper is an oil and gas exploration company with licences in the Falkland Islands. The exploration programme consists of reprocessing and re-interpretating over 4,000 km of existing 2D seismic data, as well as shooting new 2D and 3D seismic data