Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp. has elected to exercise its option to acquire a 35% interest in Block S-M-1166 held by Karoon Gas Australia Ltd. through the funding and participation in the Bilby-1 exploration well, offshore Santos basin, Brazil.

This will be the third exploration well the Company has participated in the Karoon blocks, following the Kangaroo-1 and Emu-1 wells. The Company's participation in Bilby-1 was announced today by the operator of the blocks and will complete the minimum work commitments required to retain all five blocks (S-M-1037, -1101, -1102, -1165 and -1166).

Ronald Pantin, Chief Executive Officer of Pacific Rubiales commented "Although we are in early exploration stages, we are pleased with the results to date and our partnership with Karoon. Our first well, Kangaroo-1, discovered oil in an Eocene structure and we are looking forward to following up with an appraisal well as soon as a suitable drilling rig can be sourced and mobilised to the Kangaroo-2 location."

Tags: Pacific Rubiales Energy Corp.