Ascent Resources has raised £17 million, before expenses, by way of a Firm Placing of 100,000,000 New Ordinary Shares at a price of 5p per share and a Conditional Placing of a further 240,000,000 New Ordinary Shares at a price of 5p per share (together the 'Placing'). The funds raised will primarily be used to advance the Company's flagship Petišovci/Lovási/Ujfalu project, through the drilling and completion of the Pg-11 sidetrack, the Pg-10 and Ujfalu-III wells, and capitalise on the areas P50 estimated gas in place of 412 Bcf..

Ascent's Managing Director, Jeremy Eng commented, 'With the finance in place from a series of high quality institutional investors, we can rapidly advance the Petišovci/Lovási/Ujfalu project area through the implementation of the three well campaign, which we believe will unlock the project areas potential, allow us to reach operating cash generation and capitalise on the strong pricing environment for European gas. Recent results from the Pg-11 well highlighted the area's prospectivity with the six middle Miocene reservoirs, all gas bearing and revealed that the Lower Miocene Karpatian reservoir was potentially naturally fractured and could contain additional resource potential of over 100 Bcf., on top of RPS's 412 Bcf. P50 estimates. We are looking to implement the drilling campaign next month, starting with the Pg-11 sidetrack and thereafter expect strong news flow as we look to unlock the value of our assets.'

The Firm Placing has been arranged using the authority granted to Directors at the Company's annual general meeting held on 28 June 2010. The Conditional Placing remains subject to shareholder approval at a General Meeting convened for 6 April 2011.

The New Ordinary Shares will, following allotment, rank pari passu with the Existing Ordinary Shares. Application will be made for the New Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on AIM. It is expected that Admission of the Firm Placing Shares will become effective and dealings in the Firm Placing Shares will commence on 23 March 2011. It is expected that Admission of the Conditional Placing Shares will become effective and dealings in the Conditional Placing Shares will commence on 7 April 2011.

The Company has agreed to grant to finnCap, with effect from Admission of the Conditional Placing Shares, as part of their fee on the Placing, a warrant to subscribe for 1,500,000 Ordinary Shares, exercisable at any time within 3 years from Admission at 7p per share. This additional incentive is to reflect their performance on the placing.

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