Acquisition of Common Shares in Coronado Resources Ltd.

VANCOUVER, Aug. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - TAG Oil Ltd. (TSX: TAO) and (OTCQX: TAOIF), reports that it has acquired 25,975,000 common shares in the capital of Coronado Resources Ltd. (TSX-V: CRD) pursuant to a private placement by Coronado, at a price of $0.12 per common share (the "Private Placement").  The common shares acquired by TAG pursuant to the Private Placement represent approximately 40.2% of Coronado's issued and outstanding common shares.

TAG did not own any securities of Coronado prior to the Private Placement.

The common shares acquired by TAG pursuant to the Private Placement were acquired for investment purposes and TAG may, depending on market and other conditions, increase or decrease its beneficial ownership of common shares or other securities of Coronado whether in the open market, by privately negotiated agreement or otherwise.  No person is acting jointly or in concert with TAG in connection with the purchase of the common shares.

This press release is issued pursuant to National Instrument 62-103 - The Early Warning System and Related Take-Over Bid and Insider Reporting Issues, which also requires a report to be filed with regulatory authorities in each of the jurisdictions containing additional information with respect to the foregoing matters (the "Early Warning Report").  To obtain a copy of the Early Warning Report filed in connection with the Private Placement, please see Coronado's profile on the SEDAR website at www.sedar.com.

TAG Oil Ltd.

TAG Oil Ltd. (http://www.tagoil.com/) is a Canadian-based production and exploration company with operations focused exclusively in New Zealand. With 100% control over all its core assets, including oil and gas production infrastructure, TAG is enjoying substantial oil and gas production and reserve growth through development of several light oil and gas discoveries. TAG is also actively drilling high-impact exploration prospects identified across more than 2.9 million net acres of land in New Zealand.

In the East Coast Basin, TAG has entered into a farm-out agreement with Apache Corp. on three permits to explore and potentially develop the major resource potential believed to exist in the tight oil source-rock formations that are widespread over the Company's acreage. These oil-rich and naturally fractured formations have many similarities to North America's Bakken source-rock formation in the successful Williston Basin.

SOURCE TAG Oil Ltd.