Austral Pacific to Raise up to US$7 Million

WELLINGTON, New Zealand, June 19  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Austral Pacific Energy Ltd. (TSX-V: APX; NZSX: APX; Amex: AEN)

Austral Pacific Energy Ltd. announces that it has reached agreement with a number of arms-length accredited investors to privately place up to 14 million equity units at US$0.50 each with each unit comprised of a common share and a 15 month half-warrant, each full warrant being exercisable at US$1.00 per common share. $5.61 million of these funds have been received to date and the balance of the funds is expected to be in-hand before the targeted closing date of June 23, 2008. The Company's agent McDouall Stuart Securities of Wellington will receive a fee of 3% on the placement. The funding is subject to TSX Venture exchange approval. No new insiders will be created on account of the placement.

The funds will be used to fund the Company's current and future drilling programs and other working capital. Results from the Cheal A6 well are expected in the next week to ten days.

The shares and any shares issuable on exercise of the warrants will be subject to a four month resale restricted period in Canada. These securities are not being offered or sold in the United States and will not be registered under the US Securities Act of 1933. They will not be eligible for resale within the United States except in accordance with available exemptions from registration under that Act.

The Company has now issued the settlement shares to TAG Oil Ltd, described in the news release of May 27, 2008.

  Web site:  http://www.austral-pacific.com/www.austral-pacific.com
  Email:     
  Phone:     Thom Jewell, CEO [phone]
             or Brad Holmes: [phone]




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, [phone], or Brad Holmes,

[phone], , both of Austral Pacific Energy Ltd.



Web site:  http://www.austral-pacific.com/ 

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