Amendment of LTIP Scheme

30 September 2010

Sterling Energy Plc ("Sterling" or "Company"), the AIM listed oil & gas, exploration & production, company with interests in the Middle East and Africa, provides the following update:

All-Staff Long Term Incentive Plan ("All-Staff LTIP")

Following a recommendation by the Sterling Remuneration Committee, the Board proposes to amend the performance period for the All-Staff LTIPs awarded during the period 1 October 2009 to 30 September 2010; the original performance period of one year will be amended to three years; the amended period will be from 1 October 2009 to 30 September 2012. The performance conditions for options granted under the All-Staff LTIP will remain unchanged.

The Remuneration Committee made its recommendation based on several considerations; the amendment will bring the length of the performance period in-line with other similar long term incentive plans. Furthermore, the Board believes that as the performance conditions to be satisfied before the options vest are measured as relative performance compared to the performance of the FTSE 350 index and not as absolute share price performance, the Board believes this amendment does not re-base the performance parameters of the original awards (see below for a summary of the performance conditions).

Enquiries

Sterling Energy Plc (+44 20 7405 4133)

Alastair Beardsall, Executive Chairman

Evolution Securities (+44 20 7071 4300)

Rob Collins & Chris Sim

Summary of All-Staff Performance Conditions

The number of options that vest are based on a comparison of the growth of the Company's share price ("SESP") against the growth of the FTSE350 index ("Index") over the Performance Period (amended to 3 years), with the share price for September 2009 of £1.57.

If the SESP under-performs the Index performance by 10% or more, then no share options will be earned and the share options will lapse.

If the SESP performance matches the Index performance, then 25% of the share options will be earned.

If the SESP performance is between matching the Index and under-performing by 10%, the amount of the share options that will be earned will be determined by extrapolating on a straight line basis.

If the SESP performance is between matching the Index and out-performing by 50%, the amount of the share options that will be earned will be determined by extrapolating on a straight line basis.

If the SESP out performs the Index performance by 50% or more, then 100% of the share options will be earned.