Empire Energy Corporation International (Empire) (OTCBB:EEGC.OB) (OTCBB:EEGC) this week announced its intention to file the Registration Statement with the SEC regarding the announced Rights Issue in the coming week. The company filed an initial registration statement on Monday May 11th and its latest quarterly report on Wednesday May 20th. The Rights Issue will become available when the registration is declared effective by the SEC.

The registration filing is the preliminary stage of the USD$9 million (AUD$12 million) Rights Issue. Shareholders of record on December 18, 2008 are eligible to subscribe for one share for every two shares held at that date at a price of US$ 7 cents (about AUD$ 9 cents) per share. With the proceeds, Empire intends to expand funding of the drilling campaign and pay outstanding due debts of Empire and its subsidiaries, including Great South Land Minerals Ltd.

SEL 13/1998, SEL 4/2009 and SEL 5/2009 total 38,677 square km (14,933 square miles, 9.6 million acres)

A Special Exploration License (SEL) application for Coal Bed Methane over an area of 11,227 square kilometres (4,335 square miles, 2.8 million acres) of the Tasmania Basin, has been allocated the reference SEL 5/2009 by Mineral Resources Tasmania for assessment purposes. This complements the current drilling program on Bellevue #1, as the Company expects to intersect and test several seams over approximately 20m (65 feet) of coal. Empire estimates that this coal may contain 1-2 cubic meters of methane gas per square meter of coal within the Permian and Triassic sequences, which are anticipated to occur between about 450m (1,476 feet) to 1,300m (4,265 feet) depth. This coal seam gas was first tested by a predecessor company of Great South Land Minerals in a well in Eastern Tasmania.

In addition, an SEL application for 12,040 square kilometres (4,649 square miles, 3 million acres) for the eastern part of the Tasmania Basin including offshore Storm Bay, adjacent to Empire�s current 15,410 square kilometres (5,950 square miles, 3.8 million acres) SEL 13/98, has been given the reference SEL 4/2009 for assessment purposes.

Under the SEL 4/2009 application, Empire has proposed a 560 kilometre (348 mile) onshore seismic program and the acquisition and processing of over 2,000 kilometres (1,242 miles) of offshore seismic within Tasmanian (900km/559 miles) and Australian Commonwealth (1,100 kilometres/683 miles) waters.

A privately funded 256 kilometre offshore 2-D seismic acquisition program was carried out with an Australian Government seismic ship in 1987-8 by Empire CEO Malcolm Bendall through a predecessor company, which processed and interpreted this seismic data and drilled a 1,751m (5,745 feet) stratigraphic well on Bruny Island in the south of Tasmania in 1995-6. This well successfully flowed wet gas to octane and 4.8% helium gas.

Registration Statement, Hunt 20 million Shares, and debt to equity

The Registration Statement will allow Hunt, at their discretion, to convert their debt to equity at a rate of US$ 7 cents per share, which the Board reduced from the US$ 15 cents a share price struck in the original agreement.

CEO Malcolm Bendall said, �Following some recent difficult times, the Company is now making strong progress with its Rights Issue, and with the responses from MRT allocating Tenement References to our applications. This could allow Empire to extend the exploration program in the near future.�

Empire Energy Corporation is an international oil and gas exploration company, focusing on developing assets in one of the world's last virgin basins and to become a leading low-cost finder of hydrocarbons. The Company is currently operating in Tasmania's central and northern basins.

Aerial pictures of the well site and the progress of the setup are available on the company�s web sites www.empireenergy.com and www.gslm.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements based on our current expectations about our company and our industry. You can identify these forward-looking statements when you see us using the words such as "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "believes," "plans" and other similar expressions. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of our ability to complete required financings and other preconditions to the completion of the transactions described herein and Empire's ability to successfully acquire reserves and produce its resources among other issues. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements for any reason, even if new information becomes available or other events occur in the future. We caution you not to place undue reliance on those statements. For a more detailed discussion of risks and other factors related to Empire Energy Corporation Int'l, please refer to its 10-K and 10 Q reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.