Press Release - EOGIL Sale

Attached is the press release that BG intends to put out tomorrow (Wednesday) morning on their purchase of our India exploration and production interests (EOGIL). The release has been approved by EGEP management and legal, and reviewed by corporate development, investor relations and corporate communications.

The only area of concern is the paragraph stating "As at 31 March 2001, EOGIL had proforma net assets of $419 million. In the twelve-month period to 31 March, the company's proforma profit after tax was $60 million, on revenue of $160 million."

However, BG maintains that this sale is classified as a Class 2 transaction and in order to comply with the London Stock Exchange rules, this information must be disclosed in the release. EGEP indicates that this will not result in any write down. This is reflected in our Q&As.

BG plans to file the international version with the London Stock Exchange within the next hour for them to issue the release at 7:00 a.m. London time. They plan to send the Indian version of the release to several Indian reporters several hours later.

Please let me (ext. 66423) know if you have any comments or concerns with the release.

John