BLACKROCK APEX MUNICIPAL FUND INC. (APX) News

WELLINGTON, New Zealand, Jan. 12 /CNW/-- Austral Pacific
(TSXV and NZSX: APX; AMEX: AEN) announces the appointment of two new directors
to the Board of the Company, with effect from 1 January 2006. The newly
appointed directors are Douglas Ellenor of Vancouver, BC, Canada and Peter
Hill, currently of London, UK.
The addition of Messrs Ellenor and Hill strengthens the Board's experience
in the petroleum industry, as well as in financial areas. The Company's
Chairman, David Newman, commented, "We are delighted to welcome these two
experienced and knowledgeable industry participants to our Board. We look
forward to the benefit Austral will obtain from their wide range of
experience."
Peter Hill, Ph.D., has over 33 years experience in the international oil &
gas industry, having held a range of technical, management and executive
positions in both a multi-national and smaller independent enterprises. He
worked for 22 years with BP, 4 of those years in New Zealand. He was most
recently President and Chief Executive of Harvest Natural Resources, Inc. and
remains a director of that company. Dr Hill has a PhD in geology from Trinity
College, Dublin. He has worked in Egypt, UK, New Zealand, Australia, South
America and the USA.
Douglas Ellenor, Ph.D., has 35 years experience in the exploration and
production industry, having spent 25 of those on international assignment with
the Royal/Dutch Shell Group in Australasia, Europe, and North and South
America. He left Shell in 1996 to become CEO of the Colombian E&P company
Hocol SA, a position he held until 1998. After a posting as Business
Development Manager in London, he returned home to Canada and established an
oil and gas consulting company. Dr Ellenor has a PhD in geology from the
University of New England, Australia. He is a member of the Board of Orca
Petroleum Inc., Calgary.
To align directors more with shareholder interests, compensation is
reflected in performance share options. The Company has granted 60,000
incentive options to each new director, exercisable for 5 years, of which
one-third are exercisable at each of US$1.80, $2.00 and $2.50 per share, each
tranche vesting at 12 month intervals.
In other corporate news, the CEO succession plan previously announced by
Austral is progressing favorably, with a short-list of high caliber candidates
currently under consideration. David Newman, Chairman of the Board stated,
"The search for a suitable successor to Dr Bennett as CEO of Austral has been
conducted in a very professional, thorough manner and I expect the Board to be
in a position to appoint a new CEO for Austral in the next thirty days." Dr
Bennett has resigned as CEO effective December 30 2005, and will provide
consultancy services to the company through the succession process. Dr.
Bennett will continue as a director until the company's annual general meeting
planned for May 2006. In the interim, Chairman, David Newman, will be acting
CEO.

None of the Exchanges upon which Austral Pacific's securities trade have
approved or disapproved the contents hereof. This release includes certain
statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements" within the
meaning of applicable legislation. Other than statements of historical fact,
all statements in this release addressing future production, reserve
potential, exploration and development activities and other contingencies are
forward-looking statements. Although management believes the expectations
expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable
assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, and
actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the
forward-looking statements, due to factors such as market prices, exploration
and development successes, continued availability of capital and financing,
and general economic, market or business conditions. Please see our public
filings at www.sedar.com and www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/webusers.htm for
further information.

CONTACT: Investor Relations:
Tel: +1 561 837 8057 ext 2
Website: http://www.austral-pacific.com
Email: ir@austral-pacific.com