Petrolia Files a Lawsuit Against Le Soleil and Ugo Lapointe

RIMOUSKI, QUÉBEC--(Marketwire - Jan. 26, 2011) - Pétrolia (TSX VENTURE:PEA) announces that, on January 20th, 2011, it filed a motion to institute proceedings with the office of the Superior Court of Québec, solidarily claiming $300,000 in moral damages and $50,000 in exemplary damages from Montréal's 3834310 Canada Inc., owner of the Québec City daily newspaper Le Soleil, and Ugo Lapointe, spokesperson of the Pour que le Québec ait meilleure mine! coalition. This motion arises from the publication of an article that appeared in the December 3, 2010 issue of Le Soleil, which reported false and defamatory accusations by Ugo Lapointe against Pétrolia.

For the purpose of this motion, Pétrolia is committed to donating the net proceeds from all amounts it may be granted by the Court to non-profit organizations in Gaspésie that are dedicated to employment growth and economic development in their region. Pétrolia's attorney is Me Claude-Armand Sheppard of the law firm of Robinson Sheppard Shapiro in Montréal.

Pétrolia's motion is available on its website at: http://petroliagaz.com/en/investisseur/parle.php.

About Pétrolia

Pétrolia is a junior oil and gas exploration company which owns interests in oil and gas licenses covering 15,000 km² (2.7 million acres), which represents about 17% of the Québec territory under lease. The leases, the majority of which are located on the Gaspé Peninsula and Anticosti Island, are considered to be very promising and represent almost 70% of the territory under lease for which there is land-based oil potential in Québec. Pétrolia has 50 million shares issued and outstanding.