AWE update on Indonesian Constitutional Court ruling

(14 November 2012) -- AWE Limited provides the following update on its operations in Indonesia. AWE operates and participates in a number of Production Sharing Contracts (?PSCs?) in Indonesia that contain exploration and pre-development projects, including the Ande Ande Lumut (?AAL?) oil field. These PSCs have been administered by the industry regulator BPMIGAS.

AWE has been advised that the Constitutional Court of Indonesia yesterday annulled selected articles within the Oil and Gas Law allowing BPMIGAS to act as the state upstream oil and gas regulator.

The Managing Director of AWE, Bruce Clement, currently in Jakarta, said that the company has been advised that the existing PSCs will remain intact under the new regulatory regime.

?We anticipate that the Indonesian Government will take immediate steps to ensure the orderly transfer of regulatory responsibility for the upstream oil and gas industry from BPMIGAS to the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

?While the change in administration may result in some near term delays in approvals for the Ande Ande Lumut (AAL) development, we do not anticipate any significant issues in the longer term delivery of the project.

?In the meantime, we will continue to progress with engineering and planning for the AAL oil project and with technical work on our other exploration assets,? Mr Clement said. (ends)