ROC OIL - new issue

(Adds transactions value, details)
SYDNEY (AFX) - Roc Oil Ltd said it entered into an agreement with private UK
oil group Acorn Oil & Gas Ltd that gives it an option to buy a stake of as much
as 26 pct in the Ardmore Oil Field and surrounding acreage in the UK North Sea.
Roc will pay 750,000 stg via a secured senior ranking loan and has
undertaken to pay 26 pct of future joint venture expenditure and to pay what is,
in effect, an option exercise fee of up to 1.9 mln stg, to purchase the right to
acquire up to a 26 pct stake in the field.
The field is subject to a development drilling and workover programme
designed to increase gross joint venture production to more than 12,000 barrels
of oil per day bBopd) in the second half of 2005 from the current 8,000 bopd
from two wells.
lyndal.mcfarland@xfn.com
lmf/dk/jc