Circle Oil plc , the international oil and gas exploration and production company, is pleased to announce that drilling and tie in operations in its Sebou and Oulad N'Zala licences in the Rharb Basin, Morocco are now back on track with the spudding of the DRJ-6 well in the Sebou permit in the past few days. As previously announced, these operations were delayed due to very severe flooding in the area over the past months.

Circle is also pleased to announce that its gas discovery ONZ-6 in the Oulad N'Zala permit has been tied in to the local pipeline infrastructure and is producing gas by way of a revenue earning extended well test. This should lead into continuous production and allow a fuller assessment of reserves.

Road access and platform construction are underway on the final two locations of the Company's six well programme and work on the tie in for the CGD-9 and KSR-8 wells is progressing.

Commenting on this news, David Hough, CEO of Circle said:

"Following the abnormally high rainfall of the past winter there was serious flooding over the whole of the Rharb Basin and we had no alternative but to delay some of these operations. However the flood waters have now subsided and operations have recommenced with the spudding of the DRJ-6 well and the tie in of the ONZ-6 discovery. The tie in of ONZ-6 enables Circle to increase its gas output from the licence thereby immediately increasing our revenues from the area."