RPT.L Regulatory News (RPT)

28 Sep 2006 07:03

Regal Petroleum PLC28 September 2006 For Immediate Release 28 September 2006 REGAL PETROLEUM PLC ("Regal" or "the Company") Ukrainian Update The Company is pleased to announce that late yesterday the Kiev Commercial Courtdelivered its decision arising from the hearing held on 19 September 2006 in thelegal action brought by Chernihivnaftogasgeologia ("CNGG") against the Ministryof Environmental Protection ("MEP") challenging the validity of Regal'sproduction licences in the Ukraine. The Kiev Commercial Court made an orderthat the original decision made on 10 November 2005 be overturned and thatRegal's production licences were correctly and validly granted. CNGG brought the legal action against its own parent organisation, the MEP,claiming that the correct procedures were not followed in the awarding of twoproduction licences to Regal in July 2004. On 10 November 2005, at the initial hearing of such action, the Kiev CityCommercial Court upheld CNGG's claim. On 31 January 2006, at the appeal hearing of such action, the Kiev Court ofAppeal again upheld CNGG's claim. On 5 May 2006, at the further appeal hearing of such action, the SupremeAdministrative Court of Ukraine again upheld CNGG's claim. On 18 August 2006, the Kiev Commercial Court ordered that this action besubmitted to the Kiev Commercial Court for reconsideration of the earlier ordersmade in this action on the basis of new circumstances. On 19 September 2006,the action was heard in the Kiev Commercial Court and the Court's decision wasreserved to a later date. On 27 September 2006, the Kiev Commercial Court delivered its decision of thehearing held on 19 September 2006 and ordered that the original decision of theKiev City Commercial Court made on 10 November 2005 should be overturned (andthereby invalidating the decisions of the Kiev Court of Appeal made on 31January 2006 and the Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine made on 5 May 2006)and that Regal's production licences were issued in accordance with the correctprocedures and are valid. The Company continues to work closely with its Ukrainian lawyers and willprovide additional updates as further information becomes available. For further information, please contact: Regal Tel: 020 7408 9500 Roger Phillips, Finance DirectorFrank Scolaro, Non-executive Director This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange