Exercise of Options

15 September 2014

Circle Oil Plc

("Circle" or the "Company")

Exercise of Options and Director and PDMR Dealings

Circle Oil Plc (AIM: COP) the international oil and gas exploration, development and production company, announces that it has issued 2,493,153 ordinary shares of €0.01 ("New Ordinary Shares") each in the Company pursuant to an exercise of options.

Of the 2,493,153 shares being issued, 2,120,028 are pursuant to the exercise of options by Professor Chris Green, Chief Executive Officer of the Company and 148,402 are pursuant to the exercise of options by Brendan McMorrow, Chief Financial Officer of the Company.

On 12 September 2014, Circle was notified by Professor Green that on 12 September 2014 he sold 2,120,028 shares in the Company at an average price of 26.22p. The Company was also notified on 12 September 2014 by Mr McMorrow, that he sold 148,402 shares in the Company at an average price of 26.22p. The beneficial ownership of Professor Green and Mr McMorrow is therefore unchanged, their current shareholdings in the Company are set out below:

Application has been made for the New Ordinary Shares to be admitted to trading on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market for listed securities ("Admission"). Admission and dealings in the New Ordinary Shares are expected to become effective on 18 September 2014. The new Ordinary Shares will rank pari passu with the Company's existing Ordinary Shares.

Following Admission, the total issued share capital of the Company will be 565,846,639 Ordinary Shares, of which 465,846,639 have voting rights.

The above figure of 565,846,639 shares may be used by shareholders as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in, Company under the FCA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

For further information contact: 

Circle Oil Plc (+44 20 7638 9571)Professor Chris Green, CEO

Brendan McMorrow, CFO

Investec (+44 20 7597 5970)Chris SimGeorge Price

James Rudd

Liberum Capital Limited (+44 20 3100 2222)Clayton Bush

Tim Graham

Citigate Dewe Rogerson (+44 20 7638 9571)Martin JacksonShabnam Bashir

Murray Consultants (+353 1 498 0300)Joe MurrayJoe Heron

Glossary

PDMR - Persons discharging management responsibility

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 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. In addition to its prospective Block 52 offshore, Circle also has an ongoing exploration programme in Block 49 onshore.

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