WELLINGTON, New Zealand, July 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Austral Pacific Energy Ltd. (TSX-V: APX; NZSX: APX; Amex: AEN) announced today it is strengthening its executive team through the permanent appointment of two key executives and has made significant improvements to its skill base through the addition of highly experienced technical and financial staff. Dr. Chris McKeown has been appointed as Commercial Manager. Chris has been with the company since October 2006 in a temporary capacity, working primarily on commercial issues related to the Cheal project. He will now focus on more strategic issues facing the company. Dr McKeown is the former CEO of Arrowhead Energy Ltd and provides the company with a range of skills derived from developing commercial opportunities within the energy sector. He has held a variety of key strategic roles including Upstream Fuels Manager; Business Development Manager and Reservoir Engineer, and has worked on commercial projects in Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas. Chris has a BSc (Hons) (Applied Geology) and PhD (Geology), from the University of Glasgow. Mr. David Pay has been appointed as Legal Counsel from August 2007. He will work with the Company Secretary in consolidating the company's governance and contracting systems, and providing in-house legal support. David has previously worked as Legal Counsel for Contact Energy and more recently as General Counsel for the Electricity Commission, New Zealand's electricity market oversight body. Mr. Andy Price has been appointed as Projects Manager. Andy's first focus will be the testing and delivery of the Cardiff resource. He has operational experience gained in the Middle East, North America and Europe covering a period of 23 years. He has an extensive knowledge of the exploration and production challenges relevant to the Taranaki Basin. Most recently, he managed OMV New Zealand's non-operated assets and its drilling preparations for its offshore exploration programme and was previously Engineering Manager for Petro-Canada's international division in the UK. Mrs. Irene Bocock, previously Corporate Accountant, has been appointed as Financial Controller. She is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants and has had 20 years experience in chartered accounting. Prior to joining Austral in February 2007, Irene worked in the motor industry. The Company has granted 800,000 incentive options, as part of the remuneration packages for these new staff. These options replace 500,000 lapsing options which were held by two former executives. All options are exercisable for 5 years, vesting in three equal tranches over 18 or 24 months, at an exercise price fixed at the closing price on the date of the employee's appointment. For those options recently granted, the price therefore ranges from US$1.02 to US$1.30. Annual General Meeting Scheduled The Company's annual general and special meeting of shareholders is to be held on August 22, 2007 at 4:00 PM (PDT) at the offices of their attorneys, Lang Michener LLP, at Suite 1500 Royal Centre, 1055 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, B.C., Canada. The record date for mailing and voting was July 13, 2007. A briefing for shareholders unable to attend the AGM will also be held, on September 12, 2007 at noon (NZST), at the James Cook Hotel Grand Chancellor, 147 The Terrace, Wellington, New Zealand. Web site: http://www.austral-pacific.com/ Email: Phone: Thom Jewell, CEO +64 (4) 495 0880 None of the Exchanges upon which Austral Pacific's securities trade have approved or disapproved the contents hereof. This release includes certain statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable legislation. Other than statements of historical fact, all statements in this release addressing future production, reserve potential, exploration and development activities and other contingencies are forward-looking statements. Although management believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, due to factors such as market prices, exploration and development successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market, political or business conditions. See our public filings at http://www.sedar.com/ and http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm for further information. DATASOURCE: Austral Pacific Energy Ltd. CONTACT: Thom Jewell, CEO of Austral Pacific Energy Ltd., +64 (4) 495 0880, Web site: http://www.austral-pacific.com/

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