Award of options

Northern Petroleum Plc

("Northern Petroleum" or "the Company")

Award of Options

Northern Petroleum (AIM: NOP) announces that it has awarded options to acquire ordinary shares in the Company, at a cost of the nominal value of the shares, under the terms of the Northern Petroleum Incentive Plan ("NPIP"). The details of the awards are set out below.

NPIP award

The options awarded to Keith Bush, Nick Morgan and Paul Lafferty vest three years after the award. The options awarded to staff members vest equally over three years after award. All options lapse ten years after award.

Salary substitution grant

As announced on 12 November 2015, certain senior management agreed to further reduce their salaries from 1 November 2015 in exchange for the issue of options, under the terms of the NPIP. This agreement is reviewed on a quarterly basis by the Remuneration Committee and is currently continuing in place.

The amount of options granted for the first quarter of the substitution scheme, from 1 November 2015 to 31 January 2016, was calculated using the salary foregone divided by 3.0 pence, which was the placing and open offer price used in the equity issue in December 2015. 

The amount of options granted for the second quarter of the substitution scheme, from 1 February 2016 to 30 April 2016, was calculated using the salary foregone divided by 2.623 pence, which was the volume weighted average price of the Company's ordinary shares during this period.

The options granted in accordance with the agreements are as follows:

All these options vest three years after award and expire ten years after award.

In addition, 218,341 options were granted to a staff member in relation to a reduction in salary taken since the 1 April 2015, again under the terms of the NPIP. These options vest equally over three years following the award.

Total options in issue

The number of options awarded or granted to allow Directors, senior management and staff to acquire ordinary shares in the Company, at a cost of the nominal value of the shares, now totals 8,122,455, which represents approximately 5.5 per cent. of the Company's issued share capital. The total number of options now awarded or granted to persons discharging managerial responsibilities are as follows:

-Ends-

For further information please contact:

Northern Petroleum Plc Tel: +44 (0)20 7469 2900

Keith Bush, Chief Executive Officer

Nick Morgan, Finance Director

Stockdale Securities Limited (Nomad and Joint Broker) Tel: +44 (0)20 7601 6100

Antonio Bossi

Robert Finlay

David Coaten

FirstEnergy Capital LLP (Joint Broker) Tel: +44 (0)20 7448 0200

Jonathan Wright

Note to Editors:

Northern Petroleum is an oil and gas company focused on production led growth. The Company is undertaking a redevelopment and production project in north west Alberta and has a broader portfolio of exploration and appraisal opportunities in countries of relatively low political risk, primarily Italy. Comprehensive information on Northern Petroleum and its oil and gas operations, including press releases, annual reports and interim reports are available from Northern Petroleum's website: www.northernpetroleum.com