Appointment of Non-Executive Director (8671L)

TIDMCOP

RNS Number : 8671L

Circle Oil PLC

08 August 2011

8 August 2011

CIRCLE OIL PLC

("Circle" or the "Company")

Appointment of Non-Executive Director

Circle Oil Plc (AIM: COP) the international oil and gas exploration, development and production company, is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Nicholas John Clayton as a Non-Executive Director with effect from today.

Mr Clayton (48) has provided strategic and corporate finance advice to a number of public and private oil and gas companies since January 2007. He began his career at BP having obtained a first class honours degree in Business Studies, sponsored by BP, from Portsmouth Polytechnic in 1985. He was Global Head of Oil and Gas Corporate Finance for Dresdner Kleinwort Benson from 2000 to 2005 having previously been Global Head of Energy Research between 1997 and 2000. Between August 2005 and December 2006 he was Global Co-Head of Oil and Gas Corporate Finance for Canaccord Adams (now Canaccord Genuity).

Mr Clayton is currently Chairman of Bridge Resources Corp., a Canadian listed company with operations in the North Sea and North America. He also provides strategic advice to Geopark, an AIM-listed company operating in Chile and Argentina. He is an independent Non-Executive Director at Sterling Energy Plc since 2009 and is the current Chairman of their Audit Committee.

Commenting on the appointment, Thomas Anderson, Chairman of Circle, said:

"I am delighted to welcome Nicholas to our Board and look forward to working with him to further advance the Company. He has significant experience of both the oil and gas industry and the capital markets and will strengthen our Board as we all work together to achieve our goals."

Save as set out below, there is no further information required to be disclosed under paragraph (g) of Schedule 2 of the AIM Rules.

Current Directorships:

Chairman, Bridge Resources Corporation

Non-Executive Director, Sterling Energy Plc

Former directorships and partnerships in the past 5 years:

Artumas Group (2008-2010)

Arawak Energy (2007-2009)

For further information contact:

Circle Oil Plc ([phone])

Thomas Anderson, Chairman

Evolution Securities ([phone])

Chris Sim

Neil Elliot

Fox-Davies Capital ([phone])

Daniel Fox-Davies

Richard Hail

Citigate Dewe Rogerson ([phone])

Martin Jackson

Kate Lehane

Murray Consultants ([phone])

Joe Murray

Joe Heron

Notes to Editors

Circle Oil Plc

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 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 its prospective Block 52 offshore, 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. 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.

This information is provided by RNS

The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

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