Result of Jodari-1 well, Block 1 offshore Tanzania

Ophir Energy plc

Result of Jodari-1 well in Block 1 offshore Tanzania

"4.5 TCF gas discovery, significantly exceeding pre-drill estimates"

London, 26 March 2012: Ophir Energy plc ("Ophir" or "the Company") announces that the Jodari-1 well in Block 1 offshore Tanzania is a 4.5 TCF gas discovery.

Highlights

·; Fourth consecutive gas discovery for the Ophir-BG joint venture in Tanzanian offshore Blocks 1, 3, 4 and largest discovery by Ophir in its history

·; Estimated mean in-place resource number of 4.5 TCF. Recoverable mean resource estimated as 3.4 TCF (567 MMboe), exceeding mean pre-drill recoverable resource expectations of 2.2 TCF by 55%

·; A total 124m of net pay encountered across the stacked target horizons in high-quality reservoirs

·; Jodari-1 has de-risked the Lower Tertiary section, of comparable age to the outboard basin floor fan play in Mozambique, and in pursuit of which the Ophir-BG joint venture is now acquiring 3D in the eastern area of Block 1, Tanzania

·; Cumulative discovered, recoverable gas resources in Blocks 1, 3, 4 are now c. 7 TCF and nearing the minimum threshold volumes required for a two-train LNG development

Jodari-1 was designed as a play-finder well to test slope-channel targets of Miocene, Lower Tertiary and Upper Cretaceous age. Log analysis shows that the well intersected the edge of a Miocene accumulation and two intervals of Lower Tertiary age, with 113m and 11m of gross pay respectively and high quality reservoirs. The Upper Cretaceous encountered formation gas but was not considered pay at this location. The significantly greater aggregate pay thickness and excellent net to gross ratio have substantially exceeded pre-drill expectations and result in the 3.4 TCF mean recoverable resource estimate.

The well was spudded on 7th January 2012 in 1153m of water and was drilled by the drillship "Deep Sea Metro 1" to a total depth of 4465m subsea in 73 days. The Metro-1 drillship will now return to Mzia-1 (where the top hole section was drilled in early January prior to commencing Jodari-1) in order to complete the bottom portion of the well. The Mzia-1 well is estimated to take 75 days to drill and is targeting a 4.6 TCF Upper Cretaceous prospect with a different seismicanomaly to that calibrated by the Jodari-1 well.

Jodari-1 was the fourth well to be drilled by the Ophir-BG joint venture in their jointly held acreage and was the first well to be operated by BG. Ophir holds 40% of Blocks 1, 3 and 4; BG operates with 60%.

Nick Cooper, CEO of Ophir Energy plc said:

"The result from Jodari-1, at 3.4 TCF recoverable, has materially exceeded pre-drill estimates and represents the largest discovery in Ophir's history. The 2012 Ophir-BG drilling programme in Tanzania has two objectives: firstly to test deeper intervals below the Miocene and secondly to accumulate sufficient resources to promptly confirm a two train LNG development.

These excellent Jodari-1 results are important for the future development of Tanzanian offshore industry and for the Ophir-BG partnership since they achieve both of these objectives by de-risking the previously untested deeper Lower Tertiary levels and also taking a major step closer to the second LNG train.

This is a very strong start to our five well 2012 Tanzania drilling campaign and the Metro-1 drillship will now move to drill Mzia-1, which is targeting mean recoverable resources of 4.6 TCF. "

Ends

For Further Enquiries please contact:

Ophir Energy plc +44 (0)20 7290 5800

Nick Cooper, CEO

Stephanie Prior, Commercial Manager

FTI Consulting (PR Advisor to Ophir) +44 (0)20 7269 7157

Billy Clegg/Edward Westropp