CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwire) -- 01/22/13 -- Rock Energy Inc. (TSX:RE) ("Rock") is pleased to announce that effective January 21, 2012 Mr. Josh McDonald has been appointed Vice President of Exploration of Rock Energy. Josh has previously worked with both Allen Bey and Jeff Campbell at Avid Oil and Gas, and now brings over 17 years of experience to the company, the most recent of which as the Vice President of Exploration at Renegade Petroleum. Josh will be responsible for leading Rock's exploration and development efforts as the company moves to build on its exploration discoveries to further expand its drilling inventory.

In addition to Josh, the company has appointed Mr. Scott Kober as Manager of Engineering effective December 10, 2012. Scott has over 15 years of experience in the industry in a wide variety of engineering roles. Scott is a key component of Rock's strategy of maximizing the recovery of the resources we have discovered, and he is primarily responsible for overseeing Rock's reserve management, exploitation strategies and business development.

During 2012 Rock was able to complete the drilling of 23 (23.0 net) total wells resulting in 16 (16.0 net) oil wells, 4 (4.0 net) D and A wells, and 3 (3.0 net) service wells for an overall 83% success rate. During the fourth quarter, Rock was able to add another 4 sections of land to our existing position at Mantario (through farm-ins with industry partners) bringing our total land count on the play to 27.75 net sections. At year end Rock's total undeveloped land position reached approximately 90,000 net acres, 73,000 (approximately) of which is focused in our heavy oil core areas. Rock's drilling inventory at year end stood at 100 development locations in addition to numerous exploration prospects in the South West Saskatchewan core area. The company has budgeted to test 4-6 of these exploration prospects in 2013.

During the fourth quarter of 2012 the company's production averaged over 2,600 boepd (a 16% increase from Q3) and approximately 2,350 boepd for the year (the upper end of our previously announced guidance). Rock is currently over approximately 2,800 boepd (84% oil and ngls).

Thus far in 2013 the company has drilled 5 successful oil wells in the Mantario property and is planning to drill an additional 9 wells before the end of the first quarter. These 40 acre step-out locations will help to delineate the extent of the main pool so that a complete exploitation plan can be developed before the necessary infill locations are drilled.