BAAR, Switzerland , February 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Manas Petroleum Corporation moves to an independent management structure in order to enhance corporate governance.

Manas is pleased to announce the appointment of Thomas Flottmann, PhD, as Chief Executive Officer and Rahul Sen Gupta, CFA as Chief Financial Officer. The former CEO, Alexander Becker PhD, and CFO, Peter-Mark Vogel CFA have been appointed Director, New Ventures and Director, Finance. Mr. Becker and Mr. Vogel will continue to play an active role in the company to increase the value of the company by acquiring new projects and negotiating with potential partners and financial institutions.

The addition of Mr. Flottmann and Mr. Sen Gupta compliments Manas Petroleum's already exceptional management resources. Mr. Thomas Flottmann, recent senior geologist of Santos, completed his PhD in conjunction with West Germany's continental deep drilling program. He held several post-doctoral positions in Australia focussing on the analysis of fold-thrust belts and their hydrocarbon and mineral prospectivity. Mr. Flottmann was the principal structural advisor to CRA (now RioTinto) from 1994-1997 working on oil and gas as well as mineral exploration. Most recently Mr. Flottmann was a senior staff geoscientist and specialist advisor across all business units to Santos. He has worked in oil and gas exploration and development in Australia , Egypt , Central Asia, Indonesia , East Timor , Papua New Guinea , Gulf of Mexico and in Iran , where he led a team evaluating the remaining prospectivity in parts of the prolific Dezful Embayment.

A significant part of his work has focussed on the characterisation of fractured and fracture-enhanced gas and oil reservoirs similar to those which occur in oil fields to the south of the company's giant Albanian prospects. Thomas has introduced key structural-based reservoir modelling workflows integrating regional tectonic characterisation, analogue modelling, image log and core description as well as strain and in situ stress characterisation and their impact on reservoir performance. Mr. Flottmann has authored over 30 publications and has presented widely at national and international conferences. He also took part in two research expeditions to Antarctica and has led geological field teams in Australia , Iran and Central Asia. Memberships: PESA, AAPG, Intl Association of Structural Geologists.

Mr. Sen Gupta, recent Managing Director of Bank Sal. Oppenheim, completed his Masters of Economics majoring in finance and political economics in 1997 at the University of Zurich , Switzerland after studying Computer Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Switzerland . Mr. Sen Gupta is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA). Most recently Mr. Sen Gupta was a Managing Director at Bank Sal Oppenheim where he was in charge of the Swiss Equity Research Team and was the deputy head of Bank Sal. Oppenheim`s global equity research team. He was further a member of the Global Equity Management Committee of Sal. Oppenheim Group. Mr. Sen Gupta has a strong background in finance and investment banking which he gained through working at various well-known investment houses such as Credit Agricole Indosuez Cheuvreux and Bank Julius Bar & Co. Before joining the equity side, Mr Sen Gupta was working in the derivatives field, responsible for constructing, pricing and partly hedging/trading options. He started his career at the SWX Swiss Stock Exchange in the trading pit in 1994. In 2003, Mr. Sen Gupta was rated 8th best Swiss analyst out of 150 analysts (2003 Stocks Awards) and in 2001 he was top 10 rated European analyst for Leisure and Tourism (Reuters Temptest).

Manas Petroleum's board would like to express its appreciation to Mr. Alex Becker and Mr. Peter-Mark Vogel for their vision and dedication during the past four years and point out that their efforts were an essential component to the company's success in assembling its portfolio of giant exploration assets.

This Press Release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company has tried, whenever possible, to identify these forward-looking statements using words such as 'anticipates', 'believes', 'estimates', 'expects', 'plans', 'intends', 'potential' and similar expressions. These statements reflect the Company's current beliefs and are based upon information currently available to it. Accordingly, such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed in or implied by such statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or advise in the event of any change, addition or alteration to the information catered in this Press Release including such forward looking statements.

    Internet: http://www.presseportal.ch

    Contact:
    Bahnhofstr. 9, P.O. Box 155
    CH-6341 Baar
    Switzerland
    Tel.: +41-44-718-10-30
    Fax: +41-44-718-10-39
    Email: info@manaspete.com


    Internet: http://www.manaspete.com

SOURCE Manas Petroleum Corporation