MEO AUSTRALIA: The company advises that the board of directors has reluctantly accepted the resignation of James Willis as a non executive director with immediate effect. The board has waived the requisite 30-day notice period.

On behalf of shareholders, the board thanks Willis for his substantial contribution over the past 11 years.

The company is pleased to announce the appointment of Greg Short to the board as a non executive director, effective immediately.

In 2006, Short retired from Exxon-Mobil after a 33-year career. He joined Esso as a production and operations geologist in Australia and Malaysia, rapidly advancing to supervisory and management positions. In the 1980s he managed Production Geoscience for Esso Australia through major developments of Gippsland Basin oil and gas fields.

He spent the past 15 years overseas in management assignments that included exploration manager for the United States, Chad and Nigeria, and spent 7 years in Angola as Geoscience director. His career included participating in and/or managing major oil and gas projects in Australia, Malaysia, Chad, Nigeria and Angola from exploration through to development and production start-up.

MEO Australia welcomes Short to the board of directors and looks forward to a long and successful relationship.

OILEX: The company is pleased to announce the recent appointment of two experienced international resource company executives, Ben Clube as chief finance and commercial officer, and Kim Morrison as business development manager, further strengthening its accomplished management and technical team.

Clube spent the past 15 years at BHP Billiton Petroleum in a variety of senior management roles, including vice president of finance and planning in Houston, London and Perth. A chartered accountant, he holds a Bachelor of Science degree with Honours in geology from the University of Edinburgh and was previously audit manager at Price Waterhouse Coopers in London.

Morrison joined Oilex in May as business development manager with responsibility for growing Oilex's portfolio of assets in the countries around the Indian Ocean rim. He has more than 23 years of experience in South-East and South Asia, North Africa, North America and Australasia in various senior explorationist roles with Woodside Energy, Shell International and Marathon Oil Company.

The appointment of Clube and Morrison follows a number of recent high profile appointments to the Oilex technical team, including Paul Senycia as exploration manager (formally head of exploration at Woodside Energy for 14 years); John Lamberto as chief geophysicist (25 years experience at LASMO, Ampol Exploration, Mobil, OMV International and BHP Billiton); and Pete Bekkers as senior explorationist (previously Woodside Energy and Santos).

Commenting on the appointments, Oilex managing director Dr Bruce McCarthy said: "We are delighted to welcome Clube and Morrison to our team at this very exciting time in Oilex's development".

"Clube brings a depth of international commercial expertise that will be invaluable to the company as we execute our aggressive exploration and development plans in Oman, India and Indonesia.

"Morrison brings a broad knowledge and experience of basins in our region of interest that will be fundamental to the growth of our asset portfolio," McCarthy continued.

Oilex is pursuing an aggressive 15 to 17-well work program in 2008, with about 12 wells scheduled for the second half of the year focused on the development of the company's Cambay (India) and Pendalian (Indonesia) fields and achieving first oil production.

ICON ENERGY: The company is pleased to announce the appointment of Larry Brown as chief operating officer. This appointment, together with the earlier appointment of Harry Duerden as chief geologist, gives the company the senior management to implement and execute a testing and development plan for the ATP 626 resources.

It is anticipated that pilot-test activities included in this program will form the basis of a 145-well project to deliver the 300 petajoules of coal seam methane gas required under the memorandum of understanding with Babcock and Brown. The superior skills and depth of experience of Messer's Brown and Duerden provide Icon Energy with the capability to develop ATP 626 as well as Icon Energy's other high-potential permits.

Brown brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the coal seam gas operations of Icon Energy. Originally from the United States, Brown has worked in Australia, Nigeria, Kazakhstan and the US. He has held senior operations positions with US-based Chevron as well as growing medium companies where he devised effective operations strategies and recruited the experienced teams required to implement those strategies. He is one of a limited number of engineers worldwide who has extensive experience in the completion of down-hole operations for both conventional and coal seam gas plays.

Since his appointment in April 2008 chief geologist, Harry Duerden, has undertaken an extensive and detailed analysis of the ATP 626 resources from utilising 53 wells previously drilled in the permit and adjacent areas.

METEX RESOURCES: The board of Metex Resources (soon to be renamed Carbon Energy) is pleased to announce the appointment of experienced Queensland-based resource industry executive, Dr John G (Shad) Linley as a non executive director. The appointment further strengthens the company's board as it completes its repositioning as an energy-focused company focused on the development of commercial underground coal gasification (UCG) operations.

Linley, who lives in Brisbane, is also a director of the leading Australian base metal producer, Kagara, and uranium group, Marathon Resources. Until recently he was chief executive of Sun Metals Group in Queensland and, prior to that, he was a former director of the Centre for Strategic Industrial and Resource Development in Queensland.

During his term at the centre, he was involved in developing a comprehensive gas strategy together with an assessment of the long-term future of the coal industry in Queensland. He previously held several executive positions in Fluor Engineers, and prior to that he was vice president of Texasgulf Australia.

Linley's corporate and commercial skills will greatly assist Carbon Energy as it completes what will be the world's first commercial scale, oxygen-injected UCG demonstration trial at its Bloodwood Creek site in the Surat Basin, southeast Queensland. Site works are well advanced with initial gasification to start in late September, 2008.

It is expected that the successful completion of this trial will open up enormous opportunities for the commercial production of syngas as a feedstock for existing, proven, gas to liquids and gas to chemicals technologies.

Metex also advises that Bob Bunning has resigned as a director and leaves the board after 15 years of valuable service, including 10 years as chairman. The board would like to take this opportunity to express its strongest appreciation for Bunning's significant contribution to Metex over the years, and its best wishes for his future endeavors.

APA GROUP: Chairman Len Bleasel announced the appointment of Mark Knapman as company secretary of Australian Pipeline Ltd, the responsible entity for Australian Pipeline Trust and APT Investment Trust. Knapman's appointment is effective from July 16.