Exercise of Options

Circle Oil Plc

("Circle" or the "Company")

Exercise of Options

Circle Oil Plc (AIM: COP), the international oil and gas exploration, development and production company announces that 25,000 ordinary shares ("Ordinary Shares") of €0.01 each in the capital of the Company (the "New Ordinary Shares") have been issued pursuant to an exercise of options. 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 1 November 2010. 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 559,828,486 Ordinary Shares, all of which have voting rights. 

The above figure 559,828,486 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, the share capital of Circle under the FSA's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

For further information contact: 

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

Brendan McMorrow, CFO

Evolution Securities (+44 20 7071 4300)Rob CollinsChris SimNeil Elliot

Fox-Davies Capital (+44 20 7936 5230)Daniel Fox-Davies

Philip Davies

Citigate Dewe Rogerson (+44 20 7638 9571)Martin JacksonGeorge Cazenove

Murray Consultants (+353 1 498 0320)Joe MurrayJoe Heron

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 producing, low-risk near-term production and acreage with significant upside exploration potential.  The Company listed on AIM in October 2004.

Internationally, the Company has continued to expand its portfolio over the past 2 years and now has assets in the Rharb Basin, Morocco; the Ras Marmour Permit in southern Tunisia; the Mahdia Permit offshore Tunisia; the Grombalia Permit in northern Tunisia; and the Zeit Bay area of Egypt. Circle also has the largest licence holding of any Company in Oman. In addition to offshore Block 52, the Company also has an ongoing exploration program in Block 49 onshore.

The Company's strategy is to locate and secure additional licenses in prospective hydrocarbon provinces and through targeted investment programmes, monetise the value in those assets for the benefit of shareholders. Circle may use its own expertise to appraise reserves and bring assets into production, generating sustained cash flow for further investment. In addition it may seek farm-outs to selected partners who would then invest in the exploration and continue through to the development of the assets for production.

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