Gastar Announces Update on Australian Activity

Gastar Exploration Ltd. together with joint venture partner Eastern Star Gas announced the results from the latest exploratory corehole drilled on license PEL 238 located in New South Wales, Australia.

The Edgeroi-1 corehole was drilled approximately 26 miles north of the existing Bibbliwindi and Dewhurst areas and intersected a total of more than 70 feet of coal, including 33 feet of coal within the primary targeted Bohena coal seam. The coals intersected in the Edgeroi-1 well appear to be fractured with high gas contents. These results are consistent with the results seen in the Bibbliwindi and Dewhurst areas where over 50 feet of fractured, gas-rich coal was found in the primary Bohena coal seam.

“The results from the Edgeroi-1 corehole support the pre-drill estimates for a significant amount of recoverable coalbed methane from the Edgeroi prospect area, extending the CBM potential on PEL 238 much further north than previously mapped,” said J. Russell Porter, Gastar’s President and Chief Executive Officer.

“Along with the earlier results seen to the south, we believe this corehole is additional validation of the tremendous resource potential of PEL 238. With the flurry of recent acquisitions of independent CBM players in eastern Australia, we believe that PEL 238 is now the largest independently owned CBM resource in eastern Australia and will be attractive as a source of gas for both domestic and export purposes.”

Gastar Exploration Ltd. is an exploration and production company focused on finding and developing natural gas assets in North America and Australia. The Company pursues a strategy combining deep natural gas exploration and development with lower risk CBM and shale resource development. The Company owns and operates exploration and development acreage in the deep Bossier gas play of East Texas and Marcellus Shale play in West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Gastar’s CBM activities are conducted within the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and concentrated on more than 6 million gross acres controlled by Gastar and its joint development partners in Australia’s Gunnedah Basin (PEL 238, PEL 433 and PEL 434) located in New South Wales. For more information, visit our web site at www.gastar.com.