announcement out

ANNOUNCEMENT ASX CODE: CTP
14 December 2010
TO: The Manager, Company Announcements ASX Limited
CONTACT: John Heugh +61 8 9474 1444
CENTRAL TAGS COAL AGAIN IN THE PEDIRKA BASIN
Central Petroleum Limited (ASX:CTP) (?Central?), as Operator has pleasure in providing this update for the Pedirka coal stratigraphic programme.
At 09:00 (CST) yesterday morning the first stratigraphic (?strat?) hole in the programme, SHEL27109-2, had reached a depth of 957.5m from the drill floor and had tagged the top Permian Purni Formation at a depth of 798m. Net coal of approximately 16m has been encountered thus far in the hole.
New Applications:
Central?s wholly owned subsidiary, Merlin Coal Pty Ltd (?Merlin?) has applied for additional mineral exploration licences in the Pedirka Basin. The new applications, ELA 28468, ELA 28472, ELA 28095, ELA 28096, ELA 28097, and an older application ELA 27099, cover an area of approximately 3,700 km2 and are thought to potentially overlay relatively shallow coal in the northern part of the Pedirka Basin. They are largely contiguous with Merlin?s other granted permits and applications in the same general area.
Coal stratigraphic drilling:
Central has commenced a coal stratigraphic drilling programme to potentially expand the estimated JORC exploration target in the Pedirka Basin. Drilling began on the first hole on Thursday 2nd December 2010. It is anticipated the initial project will take 40 days to complete. The holes are strategically located within Central Petroleum operated mineral tenements and will provide improved control in defining lateral distribution of the coal. Subject to results, another phase of drilling is planned for 2011.
The objectives of the current programme are, inter alia, to:

Drill four diamond drill holes to an average depth of 800m

Better define Permian Purni Coal thicknesses

Core the full Permian Purni Coal section using HQ3 diamond core

Perform detailed analysis on the cores retrieved to determine coal quality

Redetermine JORC exploration target tonnages, with a possible upgrade
Previous independent reports have estimated the total tonnage of coal above 1,000m as being 635 billion tonnes (?low? estimate) to 865 billion tonnes (?high? estimate) within Central?s wholly owned subsidiary, Merlin Coal Pty Ltd?s mineral leases and 1,110 billion tonnes (?low? estimate) to 1,385 billion tonnes (?high? estimate) above 1,000m in the same category in Central?s petroleum leases in the same area in the JORC ?Exploration Target? category (Mulready and Maynard June 2009). Note: the potential quantity and grade of the coal is conceptual in nature, there has been insufficient exploration to define a Mineral Resource and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in the determination of a Mineral Resource.
Coal qualities intersected to date in previous drilling were:

Specific Energy 5 - 6,000 kcals/kg or 20 - 25 GJ/tonne

Hardgrove Grindability Index 85-90 ? high, easy to mill

Average total Sulphur < 1% - low

Volatiles 25-33% (average 28%)

Ash 8-19% (average 11%)
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Moisture (air dried) 8-19% (av. 14%)
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Single seams up to 35m in thickness
John Heugh
Managing Director
Central Petroleum Limited