Press Release

Dana Petroleum plc is pleased to announce that its wholly owned subsidiary Dana Petroleum (E&P) Limited ('Dana') has signed an agreement (the 'Farm-In Agreement') with Woodside Energy (Kenya) pty Ltd. ('Woodside') to assign a 40% interest in each of the Production Sharing Contracts covering blocks L5, L7, L10 and L11 offshore Kenya (the 'PSCs') to Woodside in return for Woodside paying 80% of the costs associated with certain work obligations (the 'Carried Work Programme').

Dana currently holds an 80% interest in the PSCs and pays 100% of costs following an agreement between Dana and Star Petroleum International (Kenya) Limited ('Star') announced in April 2001. This agreement has now been superseded by the new Farm-In Agreement under which Dana will go forward with a 40% interest in all four PSC's, alongside Woodside (40%) to be appointed operator, and Star (20%).

Woodside will earn its 40% stake by fulfilling, and paying 80% of the costs of, the Carried Work Programme. This programme includes all work to be performed on the blocks, including seismic and drilling, through to such time as the first two exploration wells have been drilled and, if required, flow tested. Woodside has the option to withdraw from the PSCs after satisfying an initial work commitment to acquire a minimum of 5,000 km of 2D seismic. In this case, Woodside's interests would be reassigned to Dana and Star.

The seismic survey is currently being planned and is expected to commence in the third quarter of 2003.

Commenting on the news, Tom Cross, Dana's Chief Executive, said:

"This is an excellent deal for Dana in line with our strategy. Bringing in a new partner will accelerate exploration offshore Kenya by applying additional resources to our vast licenced area, the equivalent of over 200 North Sea blocks, yet reduce Dana's expenditure by a factor of five. In the event that Kenya turns out to be as promising as early studies have indicated, Dana has retained a large stake in the upside.

We are pleased to be working again with Woodside, with whom we have already successfully collaborated as neighbouring licence holders offshore Mauritania. Our forthcoming seismic survey represents the first oil exploration activity offshore Kenya for nearly 20 years and may lead to drilling as early as 2005."

The agreement remains subject to the approval of the Government of the Republic of Kenya.

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Notes to Editors:

1. Dana Petroleum plc is an independent oil and gas company focused on growth through high-impact international exploration and the development of low risk production from the UK North Sea. The Company had net assets at end 2002 of £137 million. Dana currently produces approximately 16,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, around 90% of which now comes from the UK North Sea.

2. The Company has a strong exploration track record, having made 11 oil and gas discoveries from its last 14 wells. Coupled with a successful acquisition strategy, Dana has delivered year-on-year growth in oil and gas reserves since floating on the London Stock Exchange in 1996. Dana's proven and probable petroleum reserves were 116 million barrels of oil equivalent at the end of 2002.

3. Dana obtained an 80% interest in and operatorship of the Kenyan PSCs in April 2001. Since then, Dana has completed a thorough re-evaluation of all existing well and seismic data in the area under licence, which covers a vast (approximately 47,500 km2), under-explored, Cretaceous-Tertiary age sedimentary basin. This work characterised seven potential 'play' types, both structural and stratigraphic, from which around 100 early-stage exploration leads and prospects have been identified to date in water depths of 200 to 3000 metres. The reserves range of individual prospects is between 50 and 1,000 million barrels.

4. Presented with these encouraging results, Dana and Star elected, in October 2002, to proceed into a second two-year exploration period under the Kenyan PSCs which obliges the coventurers to acquire a minimum of 500 km of 2D seismic over each of the four blocks by October 2004.

5. Dana's decision to farm out to Woodside is in line with the Company's strategy to (i) accelerate exploration (a minimum of 5,000 km of seismic will now be acquired, rather than 2,000 km), (ii) minimise costs to Dana (reduced from 100% to 20%), whilst (iii) retaining a significant stake in any future discovery (now 40%).

6. Woodside Energy (Kenya) pty Ltd. is an affiliate of Woodside Petroleum Ltd. of Australia

7. Star Petroleum International (Kenya) Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Global Petroleum Limited of Australia