CEO Coastal Eng

Coastal Energy Company (the "Company" or "Coastal") (TSX:CEN) (AIM:CEO), an independent exploration and production company with assets in Thailand, announces that it was notified Monday of the following purchase transactions in the Company's common shares:

Shareholder	Title	Transaction Date	Shares this Transaction	Transaction Price	Shares Owned	% of Total Outstanding
Open Market Purchase
Olivier de Montal	Director	May 18, 2012	10,000	C$13.00	370,000	0.32%

After accounting for the transactions listed above, Directors & Officers own a total of 3,716,646 Common Shares of the Company, or 3.25% of outstanding shares based on total shares issued and outstanding of 114,319,445

Additional information, including the Company's complete competent person's report, may be found on the Company's website at www.CoastalEnergy.com or may be found in documents filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

This statement contains 'forward-looking statements' as defined by the applicable securities legislation. Statements relating to current and future drilling results, existence and recoverability of potential hydrocarbon reserves, production amounts or revenues, forward capital expenditures, operation costs, oil and gas price forecasts and similar matters are based on current data and information and should be viewed as forward-looking statements. Such statements are not guarantees of future results and are subject to risks and uncertainties beyond Coastal Energy's control. Actual results may differ substantially from the forward-looking statements.

The Coastal Energy Company logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=10062

CONTACT: Coastal Energy Company
         Email: investor@CoastalEnergy.com
         +1 (713) 877-6793
         
         Strand Hanson Limited (Nominated Adviser)
         +44 (0) 20 7409 3494
         Rory Murphy / Paul Cocker
         
         Macquarie Capital (Europe) Limited (Broker)
         +44 (0) 20 3037 2000
         Paul Connolly / Jeffrey Auld
         
         FirstEnergy Capital LLP (Broker)
         Hugh Sanderson / Travis Inlow
         +44 (0) 20 7448 0200
         
         Buchanan
         Tim Thompson / Ben Romney
         +44 (0) 20 7466 5000