Circle Oil Plc, the Middle East and Africa focused oil and gas exploration, development and production company, is pleased to announce the preliminary results of drilling of the well EMD-1 in the Mahdia Permit, offshore Tunisia.

The El Mediouni-1 well (EMD-1) is located within the north central area of the Mahdia Permit in a water depth of 240 metres, 120 km east of the port of Sousse. EMD-1 was spudded on 8 June 2014 and drilled to a TD of 1,200 metres MD in the Upper Ketatna carbonates. The stratigraphy encountered in the well was exactly as prognosed and very good light oil shows were encountered both in the Lower Birsa carbonate primary target and the Upper Ketatna carbonates secondary target over a combined interval of 133 metres.

The strong hydrocarbon indications encountered in the Birsa and Ketatna carbonates confirm the existence of a working petroleum system in the Mahdia Permit for this and other prospects. The robustness of the El Mediouni trap has also been proven. The losses incurred within the target formations, as described below, give further confirmation of high quality permeability. The gross oil zone interval in the Lower Birsa is 77 metres and the Upper Ketatna has a minimum interval of 48 metres, subject to confirmation by logs. Using known reservoir and fluid parameters from equivalent formations in the Gulf of Hammamet, the internally estimated most likely recoverable prospective resources discovered by the EMD-1 well are approximately 100 MMBO.