OREANDA-NEWS. December 25, 2012. HRT Participates em Petroleo S.A. (the “Company” or “HRT”) (BM&FBOVESPA: HRTP3, TSX-V: HRP) announces that its subsidiary HRT O&G Exploragao e Produgao de Petroleo Ltda. (”HRT O&G”), Petroleo Brasileiro S.A. (“Petrobras”) and TNK-Brasil Exploragao e Produgao de Oleo e Gas Natural Ltda. (“TNK-Brasil”) signed an Amendment to the Work Plan of the Letter of Intent (“LOI”) for the gas monetization in the Solimoes Basin.

The LOI signed on October 15, 2012 has now been amended to introduce the work plan agreed to amongst the companies, which will be further matured over the next six months, starting January 2013. The signature occurred during the recent visit of President Dilma Rousseff to Moscow, where TNK-BP also has its headquarters.

The activities to be developed include: (1) evaluation of the natural gas resources within the study area, (2) engineering, environmental and logistics studies required to bring the natural gas to market, (3) the technical alternatives to monetize the gas, the markets for such gas and the local logistics of those markets, (4) economic evaluation of the studied alternatives and (5), the administrative aspects of the work plan.

“Our technical team is honored and encouraged to participate along with Petrobras in this project that is deemed so important to Brasil ” said Marcio Rocha Mello and Michael Morgan, from HRT and TNK-Brasil.

HRT is exploring the Solimoes Basin in partnership with TNK-Brasil, a subsidiary of TNK- BP.