Kulczyk Oil Ventures Inc.: Ukraine - KOV Acquires New Exploration License

CALGARY, ALBERTA--(Marketwire - Jan. 13, 2011) - Kulczyk Oil Ventures Inc. ("Kulczyk Oil", "KOV" or the "Company") (WARSAW:KOV) is pleased to announce that its 70% owned subsidiary, KUB-Gas LLC ("KUB-Gas") has been awarded another exploration license area in Ukraine.

The North Makeevskoye Exploration License is located adjacent to the KUB-Gas Makeevskoye and Olgovskoye licenses, near the City of Lugansk in eastern Ukraine. Similar to the KUB-Gas Makeevskoye and Olgovskoye licenses which lie along the primary southeastern Dneiper-Donets Basin gas/condensate structural trend, the 19,050 hectare (47,073 acre) North Makeevskoye license area is prospective for gas production from multiple zones within the Muscovian and Bashkirian sedimentary section. The award of this license to KUB-Gas increases their total holdings to five license areas and increases their total area under license by more than 110% to 36,315 hectares (89,736 acres).

Mikhail Afendikov, the Managing Director of Gastek LLC, KOV's 30% partner in KUB-Gas stated that: "We are very pleased to get this new license so close to our M-19 gas discovery."

Tim Elliott, President and Chief Executive Officer of KOV stated that: "Our experience with KUB-Gas and with our partner Gastek has been a very positive one. We will continue to have a very active program in Ukraine as gas production is developed on the KUB-Gas licenses."

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The North Makeevskoye Exploration License has a 5-year term effective 29 December 2010. It is located adjacent to the Makeevskoye License and 4 kilometres east of the KUB-Gas M-19 gas discovery which was production tested in late December at 5 million standard cubic feet per day ("MMscf/d") through a 10 mm choke.

KOV and its joint venture partner KUB-Gas will incorporate all available subsurface data at North Makeevskoye into an exploration model similar to that which was successfully constructed for the Makeevskoye and Olgovskoye licenses. This will be followed by the acquisition of a 2D seismic survey over the North Makeevskoye Exploration License in mid-2011. The first wells to be drilled on the new license might be expected in late 2011 or early 2012 depending on results of the 2011 seismic program.

Assets of Kulczyk Oil

Kulczyk Oil is an international upstream oil and gas exploration company with a diversified portfolio of projects in Brunei, Syria and Ukraine and with a risk profile ranging from exploration in Brunei and Syria to production and development in Ukraine.

In Brunei, KOV owns working interests in two production sharing agreements which gives the Company the right to explore for and produce oil and natural gas from Block L and Block M. KOV owns a 40% working interest in Block L,a 2,220 square kilometre (550,000 acre) area covering onshore and offshore areas in northern Brunei and a 36% working interest in Block M, a 3,011 square kilometre (744,000 acre) area onshore in southern Brunei.

In Ukraine, KOV owns an effective 70% interest in KUB-Gas LLC. The assets of KUB-Gas consist of 100% interests in five licenses near to the City of Lugansk in the northeast part of Ukraine.

In Syria, KOV holds a participating interest of 100% in the Syria Block 9 production sharing contract which provides the right to explore for and, upon fulfillment of certain conditions, to produce oil and gas from Block 9, a 10,032 square kilometre (2.48 million acre) area in northwest Syria. The Company has agreements to assign an aggregate of 55% in ownership interests to third parties which are subject to the approval of Syrian authorities, and which, if approved, would leave the Company with a remaining effective interest of 45% in Syria Block 9.

The main shareholder of the Company, Kulczyk Investments S.A., increased its holdings in the Company through participation in the initial public offering of the Company on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in May 2010 and the conversion of a debenture and owns almost 50% of the issued common shares. Kulczyk Investments S.A. is an international investment house founded by Polish businessman Dr. Jan Kulczyk.

Translation: This news release has been translated into Polish from the English original.

Forward-looking Statements This release contains forward-looking statements made as of the date of this announcement with respect to future activities of KUB-Gas and related to its five license areas (Vergunskoye, Krutogoroskoye, Makeevskoye, North Makeevskoye and Olgovskoye) in Ukraine that are not historical facts. Although the Company believes that its expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable as of the date hereof, any potential results suggested by such statements involve risk and uncertainties and no assurance can be given that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. Various factors that could impair or prevent the Company from completing the expected activities on its projects include that the Company's projects experience technical and mechanical problems, there are changes in product prices, failure to obtain regulatory approvals, the state of the national or international monetary, oil and gas, financial , political and economic markets in the jurisdictions where the Company operates and other risks not anticipated by the Company or disclosed in the Company's published material. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature, they involve inherent risks and uncertainties and actual results may vary materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statement. The Company undertakes no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements in this announcement to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this announcement, unless required by law.