Circle Oil Plc Regulatory News (COP)

24 March 2015

CIRCLE OIL PLC

("Circle" or the "Company")

LTIP Awards

Circle Oil plc, (AIM: COP), the international oil and gas exploration, development and production company, announces that under the Long Term Incentive Plan ("LTIP") approved by shareholders on 17 December 2013, the Company's Remuneration Committee which is comprised wholly of Non-Executive Directors (comprising Stephen Jenkins, Nicholas Clayton and Keith Morris), have granted awards over a total of 8,775,000 ordinary shares of nominal value €0.01 each ("Awards"), representing 1.55% of the Company's issued share capital. Only Nicholas Clayton and Keith Morris participated in the decision to grant Awards to Stephen Jenkins.

Details of the Awards are set out below:

  *PDMR : Persons Discharging Managerial Responsibility.

In addition to the above a total of 3,275,000 Awards have been granted to all other employees, on the same terms with the same vesting conditions.

As set out in the circular to shareholders dated 22 November 2013, the vesting of the Awards will be subject to the satisfaction of certain performance conditions set by the Remuneration Committee. Half the Awards are subject to a condition based on the Company's total shareholder return as measured against the total shareholder return of the FTSE All Share Exploration and Production Index over the performance period; the other half of the Awards are subject to a performance condition based on the Company's core value per share growth.

In each case, the targets for these Awards will be measured over three financial years of the Company commencing on 1 January 2015.

In accordance with the rules of the LTIP only employees and executive directors may be granted LTIP awards which on vesting are satisfied by way of issue of new shares save for awards granted to Stephen Jenkins (Non- executive Chairman), which are required to convert to cash on vesting.

For further information contact: 

Circle Oil Plc (+44 20 7638 9571)

Stephen Jenkins

Investec (+44 20 7597 5970)

Chris Sim

George Price

James Rudd

Liberum Capital Limited (+44 20 3100 2222)

Clayton Bush

Citigate Dewe Rogerson (+44 20 7638 9571)

Martin Jackson

Shabnam Bashir

Murray Consultants (+353 1 498 0300)

Joe Heron

Pat Walsh

Notes to Editors

Circle Oil Plc (AIM: COP) is an international oil & gas exploration, development and production Company with an expanding portfolio of assets in Morocco, Tunisia, Oman and Egypt with a combination of low-risk near-term production and significant exploration upside potential. The Company listed on AIM in October 2004.

Internationally, the Company has continued to expand its portfolio over the past two years and now has assets in the Rharb Basin, Morocco; the Ras Marmour Permit in southern Tunisia; the Mahdia Permit offshore Tunisia and the Zeit Bay area of Egypt. Circle also has the largest licence holding of any company in Oman.

Circle's strategy is to locate and secure additional licences in prospective hydrocarbon provinces and through targeted investment programmes, monetise the value in those assets for the benefit of shareholders. This could be achieved through farm-outs to selected partners who would then invest in and continue the development of the asset into production, or Circle may itself opt to use its own expertise to appraise reserves and bring assets into production, generating sustained cash flow for further investment.

Further information on Circle is available on its website at www.circleoil.net.