Rialto Appoints Non-Executive Director (Australia)

The Board of Rialto announces the appointment of Mr. Andrew Donald Bartlett as a Non-executive Director of the Company. Mr. Bartlett. 54, has over 30 years of experience in the Oil & Gas Industry. He has a wide range of skills, in both the upstream industry and across finance in M&A, Project and Mezzanine Debt, Derivatives and Private Equity. This includes over 20 years’ experience in Emerging Markets, with the majority of this time focused on Africa.

An experienced investment banker based in London, Mr. Bartlett was both the Global Head of Oil & Gas Project Finance and Global Head of O&G M&A at Standard Chartered Bank until July 2011. During the course of his investment banking career, Mr. Bartlett has either advised on or financed over 50 oil and gas deals in emerging markets, mostly in Africa, with a total value in excess of $25 billion. He also has extensive experience in the LNG sector.

Prior to going into investment banking, Mr. Bartlett helped to establish Shell Capital in the period 1998 to 2001. Shell Capital was the Private Equity/mezzanine debt group set up by Royal Dutch Shell to finance small producers in emerging markets in order to drive trading and future E&P opportunities. Prior to joining Shell Capital Mr. Bartlett worked for Royal Dutch Shell as a Petroleum Engineer & Development Manager where he gained extensive experience in developing & operating oil & gas fields. Postings included the North Sea, Netherlands, Somalia, New Zealand & Syria before joining Shell Capital.

Mr. Bartlett sits on the Advisory Board of EUCERS, a European Commission funded initiative at King’s College London for industry, politicians, financiers & academia to discuss energy security issues for the European Union. He is currently a Board member of Petroleum and Renewable Energy Company Limited, an Energy Consulting Group, as well as being a director of Bartlett Energy Advisers. In the last five years Mr. Bartlett has been CEO and director of Harrison Lovegrove Ltd and Energean E&P Holdings.

Commenting on the announcement, Bruce Burrows, Non-executive Chairman, said:

“The Board is delighted to welcome Mr. Bartlett as an independent Non-executive Director of Rialto. Andy’s appointment is in line with the planned strengthening of the Board following director resignations in April of this year. Andy brings a wealth of experience in the E&P sector generally and more importantly in the West Africa region. It is Andy’s experience in debt finance and M&A that will be of particular value at this time; when the Company is looking to secure an appropriate contribution of debt finance for its Gazelle Development, and looking to secure farm-in partners to its highly prospective exploration and appraisal portfolio offshore Côte d’Ivoire. I look forward to him making a valuable contribution to Rialto’s progress.”

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Press Release, September 17, 2012