CENTRAL PETROLEUM LIMITED — AGM Information 2012

Nov 28, 2012

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ASX ANNOUNCEMENT & MEDIA RELEASE

ASX CODE: CTP

29 November 2012

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CHAIRMAN’S ADDRESS TO THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

OF CENTRAL PETROLEUM LIMITED

Central Petroleum Limited (ASX: CTP) (“Company”) attaches a copy of the Chairman’s Address which is being delivered at the Annual General Meeting of the Company to be held today at the Company’s offices in Toowong, Queensland at 10am (Brisbane time) today.

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Media contact:

Martin Debelle at Citadel +61 2 9290 3033 or Mobile +61 (0) 409 911 189

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Chairman’s Address at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of Central Petroleum Limited, 29 November 2012

With the formal business concluded, I now take this opportunity to briefly reflect upon the events that have shaped the present form of the Company. Since the IPO in 2006, we have conducted very significant seismic surveys including the recently completed 3D survey over the Surprise field and drilled five oil exploration wells on a 100% basis. These were and in this order Blamore, Simpson, Ooraminna, Johnston West and Surprise.

Blamore and Simpson showed indications of residual oil staining, and a possible wet gas accumulation remains to be investigated in the top hole of Simpson. Ooraminna was a redrill of a 1963 gas discovery and flowed gas on test but proved noncommercial. Johnston West had strong and what appeared at the well site to be live oil shows, but when tested failed to flow. These shows however pointed to an active petroleum system, and Surprise was drilled as an immediate follow up. This well was a success, and has been evaluated by an extended production test the results of which have been recently released along with an overview of a field development plan. The future here looks to be good indeed, with followup features already identified nearby.

The first well, Blamore, intersected massive coal seams which exhibited hydrocarbon fluorescence and elevated mud log readings. This was near the beginnings of the great Coal Bed Methane bubble and led the Company into quite an extensive coal drilling program. It now seems that the hydrocarbon indications were a result of thermogenic maturation, and led the company into something of a blind alley since the subsequent wells failed to locate any significant amounts of CBM. The program did indicate a massive coal accumulation, but the remote location and the depth of burial is not helpful. Given the abundance of commercial coal in Australia and the present economics that have seen the closure of existing mines, this resource is not seen as a core asset for the company. Undoubtedly the market assigns no value to it as is clearly shown by the share price.

So, certainly there have been extensive exploration activities with the Surprise field discovery being a major success. But this has come at a cost, namely approximately $100 million since the 2006 float, with the result that a major change in direction was needed. The exploration had always been constrained by availability of funding, and it was clear that the future could only be secured via farmout to capable industry players.

This change called for some very hard decisions to be made, and they were. I will not go into the details of events of the past year; you will all be familiar with these. Suffice to mention three Extraordinary General Meetings, a not so friendly approach from PNPL (a Clive Palmer Company), a series of litigation events a number of which being initiated and subsequently settled with PNPL, and a change in the composition of the Board as a consequence of a number of resignations and appointments.

Your Company now has Richard Cottee as Director and Chief Executive, a highly regarded industry figure. Two major farmins have been concluded, one with Santos, theother with Total which if fully completed will have delivered something over $300 million in exploration effort, i.e. something over three times what the Company was able to accomplish in seven years in its own right. The acreage is highly prospective, as demonstrated by the Surprise discovery in the Amadeus and the unprecedented level of interest in the Southern Georgina and elsewhere by major industry entities. I confidently expect major success to emerge from these Joint Ventures.

So now I come to my role in this. I was invited to the Chair of Central Petroleum in 2005, prior to the IPO the following year. I have seen good times and some not so good times in the life of the Company, with a particularly not so good time emerging at the start of this year. After some key management changes, there was a revival of investor interest resulting in a placement in the first week of April of $11 million. During the related discussions I gave my personal assurances that our approach to the business had changed, that we would no longer drill high risk exploration wells at the 100% level, that we would vigorously pursue farmout ventures with capable partners and that we would seek to engage a new Chief Executive with a proven performance record.

Now, as we are here at this AGM, I believe we have together achieved what I had earlier promised. We have Richard Cottee as Chief Executive, Mike Herrington , Wrix Gasteen and Andy Whittle as new Directors. We have two major Joint Ventures underway, and a successful EPT at Surprise carried out. All litigation with the exception of that initiated by the previous MD is out of the way. And as a component of the “renewal”, the office relocation from Perth to Brisbane will facilitate the programs with Total in the Southern Georgina Basin, since the holdings are in fact in Queensland and under the terms of the farmout agreement, Central will be operating the Joint venture while the farmin work is being conducted.

These Operator responsibilities will mandate the expansion of technical capability within Central, and create a critical mass that will allow the company to manage its remaining equity holdings in Central Australia. I have seen the phrase “troubled Central” in the media more than enough. I would like to say that the description is not remotely correct. The board is not troubled, the members working together co-operatively and efficiently.

In my opinion, the Company’s future has never before been as bright as it is now, and I am taking this opportunity upon retiring from the board along with Bill Dunmore as required in rotation by the Constitution of the Company, to advise you it is my personal decision not to stand for re-election.

Finally I would like to recognize the contributions made by Richard Faull, a co-founder of the Company, who earlier stepped down from the Board in order to make these developments possible.

Ladies and gentlemen, it has been a privilege to serve as Chairman of your Company, and I leave it in very good hands.

Thank you.

Dr H.J.Askin

Chairman of the Board