Petrolia Closes a First Tranche of its Private Placements of Up to $ 3 Million

RIMOUSKI, QUÉBEC--(Marketwire - Dec. 28, 2012) -

Not for distribution to U.S. newswire services or for dissemination in the United States

Petrolia (TSX VENTURE:PEA) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has held a closing of a first tranche of its private placement previously-announced on December 7, 2012. The Company has issued an aggregate of 936,550 "flow-through" shares at a price of $1.20 per share, for gross proceeds of $1,123,860.

The Company will hold an additional closing for a second tranche of its private placement.

In consideration for their services, Marquest Capital Markets and Casimir Capital Ltd. (the "Agents") received a cash commission equal to 6% of the gross proceeds of the offering and a total of 33,670 compensation options (the "Compensation Options"). Each Compensation Option entitles the Agents to acquire one common share in the capital of the Company at a price of $1.20 per common share for a period of 12 months from the closing date.

All securities issued pursuant to this private placement are subject to a hold period ending on April 29, 2013.

As a result of the issuance of the securities, the Company has 67,582,300 common shares issued and outstanding.

Taking into consideration the net proceeds of this private placement, the Company now has approximately $9 million in cash to fund its exploration program and working capital requirements.

About Pétrolia

Pétrolia is a junior oil and gas exploration company which owns interests in oil and gas licenses covering 14,000 km² (3.5 million acres), which represents about 17% of the Québec territory under lease. The leases, the majority of which are located on the Gaspé Peninsula and Anticosti Island, are considered to be very promising and represent almost 70% of the territory under lease for which there is land-based oil potential in Québec. Pétrolia has 67,582,300 shares issued and outstanding.

Forward-looking statements

Certain statements made herein may constitute forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or the future economic performance of Pétrolia and carry known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may appreciably affect their results, economic performance or accomplishments when considered in light of the content or implications o statements made by Pétrolia. Actual events or results could be significantly different. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Pétrolia does not intend and undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.