Company Information for Petroceltic International

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AIM; PCI

Company Statement

Petroceltic is an independent upstream oil and gas exploration and production company with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland and with interests in Algeria, Italy and Tunisia.

Petroceltic is a publicly quoted company with shares listed on the Alternate Investment Market (AIM) of the London Stock Exchange and on the Irish Enterprise Exchange (IEX) of the Irish Stock Exchange.

Petroceltic is an International company with a Mediterranean basin focus.

Operations and Technology

In line with its strategy, Petroceltic seeks to develop operations in the Mediterranean Basin and North Africa. The company has built a strong operations team which covers this area and which provides exploration skills in geology, geophysics, petrophysics, reservoir engineering, petroleum engineering, well design, drilling operations and project management. For each country, the company seeks to develop its talent with an appropriate mix of international and domestic team members. Petroceltic has existing operations in Algeria, Italy and Tunisia with regional offices in Algiers, Hassi Messaoud, Rome and Tunis.

Algeria
Petroceltic views Algeria as being a key part of our strategy to develop energy resources in the Mediterranean region. The petroleum resources of Algeria are considered to be world-class containing some 35 billion boe of proven hydrocarbon reserves (Source: Wood MacKenzie). Algeria also supplies approximately 10% of Europe's natural gas via existing pipelines to Italy and Spain and to LNG projects. This supply capacity is set to expand with further gas pipelines, namely "Medgaz" to Spain and "Galsi" to Italy, both of which are currently under development. Against this background Algeria has the potential to present significant opportunities in the coming years for Petroceltic, not only within our existing portfolio, but also for additional new ventures within the country.

Petroceltic's Isarene permit area is located in the south of the Illizi Basin in South Eastern Algeria. It covers some 7,520 sq km, equivalent to about thirty North Sea blocks. The permit area is bordered by a number of fields with proven oil and gas production. The In Amenas project to the east is Algeria’s largest wet gas project, jointly operated by BP, Sonatrach and Statoil. The Repsol operated oil field Tiffernine is less than 15kms from the northern block boundary.

Algeria will be the major area of activity for Petroceltic in 2009. Petroceltic’s seven well drilling programme is expected to take approximately 9-10 months and will focus on appraising gas and oil discoveries already made on the Isarene permit by Petroceltic and previous operators.

Tunisia
Tunisia is a rapidly developing energy producer within the Mediterranean region. The country has a total of 45 oil and gas fields and an extensive network of refining and processing units. There is already a well developed pipeline network, most notably the Transmed gas pipeline to Italy, which ensures easy access to European markets. A further gas pipeline is due for construction between Libya and Tunisia, which will cross the northern part of Petroceltic’s permit. To the west of the permit a major oil pipeline runs from, Tunisia’s largest oilfield, the El Borma Field, north to the coast. Spare capacity is currently available in this pipeline, which provides a potential export option for any future oil developments on the Ksar Hadada permit.

Petroceltic's Ksar Hadada permit is located in the north of the Ghadames Basin in the south eastern Tunisia. It covers an area of 5,610 sq km. Petroceltic is the operator of the Ksar Hadada permit area, where they have recently partnered with Independent Resources, following a successful farm out. The partnership has so far developed a considerable volume of seismic data for the area. This data has identified five separate stand alone prospects in the permit region.

Italy
Italy is the third largest producer of oil and the fifth largest of gas in Western Europe. Proven reserves in Italy to date exceed 622m barrels of crude oil and 8 TCF of gas. Recent years have seen a considerable increase in the level of interest in Italy’s energy resources and a greater number of companies have been attracted to the area.

As a large net importer of hydrocarbons, there is a large market for domestically produced gas. Italy is also seen by many as being a likely hub for gas import into Europe. The development of a series of pipelines linking Italy to major gas producers such as Algeria, and Libya and the development of new LNG terminals will ensure that Italy can fulfill this role.

Petroceltic has had a strong presence in Italy since 2005. We have since substantially increased our holdings in Italy both onshore in the proven Po Valley region and offshore in the Central Adriatic prospects. In total we now have an interest in 19 different permit areas in this territory.

Po Valley
In the PO Valley Basin Petroceltic operates four permits which were acquired in 2007 from BG Italia. These permit areas are in a region with a proven oil and gas producing record.

Central Adriatic
Petroceltic’s Adriatic prospects include the Elsa-1 Discoverystructure which has already tested oil and has, an estimated potential yield of 121mmboe. Elsa is contiguous to and immediately east of the recent AGIP Miglianico discovery that is now under development and contains, according to industry estimates, approximately 50 million barrels of proven oil reserves.

Petroceltic has recently been awarded a further ten exclusive application permits in the Central Adriatic area.

Board of Directors and Key Management

Brian O’Cathain	Chief Executive
Andy Bostock	Non-Executive Chariman
AlanMcGettigan	Finance Director
Con Casey	Company Secretary and Non-Executive Director
Christian Schaffalitzky	Non-Executive Director
Pablo Fuentes-Cantillana	Non-Executive Director
Dr. Robert J Arnott	Non-Executive Director

Company Address

Styne House
Upper Hatch Street
Dublin 2, Ireland


Telephone:	+353 1 421 8300
Email:	info[at]petroceltic.ie
Website:	http://www.petroceltic.ie

Additional Address/Key Contact

Algiers Office
Lot Ben Ouadah
17 rue Khoudi Mohamed
El Biar
Algiers
Telephone: +213 (0)21 92 46 39 or +213 (0)21 92 44 13

Rome Office
Via Paola n. 24 int. 7
00186 Rome
Italy
Telephone: +39 06 68808324

Nominated Brokers

J&E Davy & Mirabaud Securities

Nominated Advisors