News Release

Vancouver – The B.C. Securities Commission has reached a settlement with a former executive of a B.C.-headquartered oil and gas exploration company after he admitted to insider trading.

Donald Wayne Busby has agreed to be banned from securities trading for at least four years with conditions on what he must do in order to sell securities already held in his account as of March 18, 2004. He cannot be a director or officer of any issuer for at least four years, nor can he engage in investor relations activities.

As part of the agreement, Busby must pay the BCSC $75,000 -- a sum equal to the loss that he avoided through his insider trading. He has also agreed to pay $10,000, half of which represents the costs of the investigation.

Busby, now a Colorado resident, was the chairman, chief executive and a director of Hilton Petroleum Ltd., a company listed on the Canadian Venture Exchange in March 2001. He admitted to learning on March 14, 2001 that a gas well in a joint venture in which Hilton held over a 12 percent interest, was producing gas flows at levels below expectations with a significant amount of water.

Busby bought and sold 380,200 Hilton shares and avoided losses of about $75,000 between March 14 to March 20, 2001 before the drilling results were disclosed.

The B.C. Securities Commission is the independent provincial government agency responsible for regulating trading in securities and exchange contracts within the province. The settlement can be accessed through the commission’s website www.bcsc.bc.ca or by contacting Andrew Poon, Media Relations, 604-899-6880.