Ann: Trading Halt, page-2

$30.8m at 16c.

EEG is Australian oil and gas company holding 100% owned andoperated assets with shale gas targets in located onshore Northern TerritoryBeetaloo Sub-basin and central trough of the McArthur Basinc.

This deal comes on the back of yesterday’s news that EEG hascompleted the sale of its US assets for US$9.1m. Followingcompletion of the sale, upfront cash proceeds of US$5.9 million were receivedby EEG and the existing US Macquarie Bank loan of ~US$4.6 million was repaid infull.

Cornerstone support hasbeen obtained from US investors including binding commitments of:

· US$5M from Bryan Sheffield,who was previously Chairman, CEO and Founder of Parsley Energy Inc., a majorindependent shale player in the Permian Basin, Texas.

· US$5M from Liberty Energywho specialises in hydraulic fracturing services and will bring their knowledgeand expertise to Empire’s Carpentaria project.

o Each of Sheffield and Liberty Energy have signed royalty deeds(each royalty deed entailing a 2.25% overriding royalty interest over EP187 forconsideration of US$2.5 million each). Royalty is calculated in accordance withthe NT Government net-back with deductions limited to 30% of gross revenue.

Verbal commitments from major Australian and US institutions havealso been received pre-launch, so I suspect the book is fully covered. Clearlythere is plenty of interest in the Australian shale assets.