VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - Aug. 22, 2012) - Africa Oil Corp. ("Africa Oil", "AOC", or "the Company") (TSX VENTURE:AOI)(OMX:AOI) is pleased to announce that an updated independent assessment of the Company's contingent and prospective resources on its Kenyan and Ethiopian exploration properties has been completed by Gaffney, Cline & Associates ("Gaffney Cline", or "GCA"). The independent assessment was carried out in accordance with the standards established by the Canadian Securities Administrators in National Instrument 51-101 Standards of Disclosure for Oil and Gas Activities. The effective date of the report is June 30, 2012.

It should be noted that these estimates do not include the Company's Puntland (Somalia) oil and gas interests which is available at www.sedar.com under Horn Petroleum Corporation, Africa Oil's 45% owned subsidiary.

Given the large quantity of prospects and leads in the Company's portfolio, the following two tables have been prepared for the convenience of readers by Africa Oil. Readers should refer to the tables attached to this News Release, which have been prepared by Gaffney Cline, detailing the contingent and prospective oil resources by prospect and lead with the associated geological chance of success:

Keith Hill, Africa Oil's President and Chief Executive Officer, commented: "Gaffney Cline's independent assessment confirms the enormous resource potential of our enviable East Africa onshore acreage. We are pleased that the investment to date in our aggressive exploration program has yielded these results showing a considerable increase in the prospective resources assigned to a growing number of leads and prospects. In addition the Ngamia-1 oil discovery has resulted in a considerable increase in the geological chance of success assigned to numerous prospects and leads, most notably in the Lokichar sub-basin. We continue to aggressively explore with three seismic crews active and a continuous drilling program that is expected to have three rigs under contract by the end of 2012. We expect the next 18 months to be transformational for the Company as we will continuously drill high impact exploration targets."

Africa Oil's holdings include working interests in operated and non-operated Production Sharing Contracts (PSC's) in Kenya, Ethiopia and Puntland (Somalia) in East Africa. These Blocks contain relatively under explored plays in basins that have proven and productive analogs. Since the effective date (December 30, 2010) of Gaffney Cline's previous evaluation of prospective resources, highlights of the Company's exploration activities in Kenya and Ethiopia include:

• Drilling the Ngamia-1 well in Block 10BB (Kenya) resulting in an oil discovery. As a result of this discovery, several prospects and leads in the Tertiary rift have been de-risked and the volume of contingent oil resources has increased;
• The acquisition of more than 4,300 km of 2D seismic, increasing the number of mapped prospects and leads;
• The completion of more than 53,000 km2 (73,000 line-kilometers) of full tensor gravity ("FTG") surveys. Given the size of the Company's exploration acreage, FTG has been a useful tool in efficiently generating additional leads and identifying prospective areas to target subsequent 2D seismic programs.

Please refer to the tables below detailing the Company's contingent and prospective oil resources by prospect and lead as provided by Gaffney Cline effective June 30, 2012.