China North East Petroleum Announces Court Decision to Deny Derivative Plaintiffs' Motion to Alter Judgment Regarding Dismissal of Lawsuit

HARBIN, China and NEW YORK, July 25, 2011 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- China North East Petroleum Holdings Limited (the "Company") (NYSE Amex: NEP), a leading independent oil producing and oilfield services company in Northern China, today announced that on July 8, 2011, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York issued a written opinion (the "Opinion") that denied a motion of Plaintiffs to re-open the consolidated shareholder derivative action against the Company and certain of its current and former officers and directors. The Company had earlier reported that the Court directed entry of a Judgment of Dismissal following defense motions to dismiss.

In their recent motion, filed on June 1, 2011, Plaintiffs sought to alter the Judgment of Dismissal to allow service of the action on several individual officers and directors of the Company who reside outside the U.S. and plaintiffs had not served and thus allow renewed prosecution of the action against these individuals.

Litigation counsel for the Company filed opposition to the motion and, after legal briefing, the Court took the matter under submission without oral argument.

On July 8, 2011, the District Court issued the Opinion, finding no grounds for the motion and affirming the earlier dismissal of the entire action. Further, the Court reached and decided the merits of an issue the Company had raised in its initial motion to dismiss, which the Company believes preempts the ability of Plaintiffs to re-file the action.

As the Company previously reported, in the shareholder derivative litigation, Plaintiffs assert breach of duty claims based on circumstances leading to the 2010 restatements of the Company's 2008 10-Qs and 10-K and 2009 10-Qs.

The Company has no information whether plaintiffs will take an appeal.

The Company and others have filed motions to dismiss the consolidated securities class actions, which are fully briefed, argued and submitted for decision with the District Court.

Mr. Jingfu Li, CEO of China North East Petroleum commented, "We are pleased that the Court remained firm in the initial dismissal of this action and took the added step of disabling the plaintiffs from a further filing. We also were pleased with the Court's reaffirmation of the proper action previously taken by our Board."

ABOUT CHINA NORTH EAST PETROLEUM

China North East Petroleum Holdings Limited is an independent oil company that engages in the production of crude oil in Northern China. The Company is a pioneer in China's private oil exploration and production industry, and the first Chinese non-state-owned oil company trading on the NYSE Amex.

The Company has a guaranteed arrangement with the PetroChina to sell its produced crude oil for use in the China marketplace. The Company currently operates five oilfields in Northern China. The Company also recently obtained exploration and drilling rights in the Durimu oilfield through its acquisition of Sunite Right Banner Shengyuan Oil and Gas Technology Development Co., Ltd. ("Shengyuan"). For more information about the Company, please visit http://www.cnepetroleum.com.

in this press release, including but not limited to those relating to the Company's or management's beliefs, expectations, hopes, projections, assessment of risks or predictions for the future and other statements that are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations. Although the Company believes that its expectations are based on reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that these expectations will prove correct. Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Each forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date of the particular statement and the Company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement.

SOURCE China North East Petroleum Holdings Ltd.