LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwire - May 16, 2012) - Heritage Oil Plc (TSX:HOC)(LSE:HOIL) ("Heritage"), an independent upstream exploration and production company, announces that on 15 May 2012 it purchased 70,000 Ordinary Shares to be held in treasury at 128.0 pence per share. Following this purchase, Heritage Oil Plc holds 34,602,442 Ordinary Shares in treasury, and has 255,145,588 Ordinary Shares in issue (excluding treasury shares) as well as 2,811,408 exchangeable shares of no par value of Heritage Oil Corporation, each carrying one voting right in Heritage.

The total number of voting rights in Heritage, excluding treasury shares, as at 15 May 2012 is 257,956,996.

The above figure (257,956,996) may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, Heritage under the FSA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

Notes to Editors

• Heritage is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. The trading symbol is HOIL. Heritage has a further listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:HOC).

• Heritage is an independent upstream exploration and production company engaged in the exploration for, and the development, production and acquisition of, oil and gas in its core areas of Africa, the Middle East and Russia. 

• Heritage has an exploration, appraisal and development asset in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, exploration assets in Malta, Tanzania, Mali, Pakistan, Libya and the Democratic Republic of Congo and a producing property in Russia. 

• For further information please refer to our website, www.heritageoilplc.com.