Petroceltic International PLC : Readmission to AIM and ESM

11 October 2012

Petroceltic International plc

("Petroceltic" or the "Company")

Readmission to AIM and ESM

Petroceltic is pleased to announce that, following completion of the recommended merger of Petroceltic and Melrose Resources plc (the "Merger"), readmission of the Enlarged Company Shares and trading on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange and the ESM Market of the Irish Stock Exchange will commence this morning.  Petroceltic will continue to trade under the ticker PCI and ISIN IE0003186172.

Petroceltic is a regionally focused North Africa, Mediterranean and Black Sea independent oil and gas company with a balanced portfolio comprising production, development and high-impact exploration assets. The asset base of the Company comprises cash generating production interests  in Egypt  and Bulgaria, development upside from the Ain Tsila gas project in Algeria and high-impact exploration in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Italy, Romania, Bulgaria and Egypt, balanced across proven and frontier plays.

The Company has current working interest production of 28,600 boepd and 2P reserves of 79.2 MMboe as at 30 June 2012, in addition to contingent resources of 357 MMboe and unrisked prospective resources of 1,365 MMboe as at 1 January 2012.

Petroceltic will embark on an active exploration drilling campaign in the next 18 months, with exploration wells planned in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Italy, Romania, Bulgaria and Egypt. The wells in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Italy and Bulgaria are targeting an estimated 259 MMboe of unrisked prospective recoverable resources.  An exploration well on the Mesaha frontier exploration licence in Egypt is expected to commence in November. 

As previously announced, Petroceltic has secured a new $300 million facility from HSBC to refinance Melrose's previous reserve based lending and subordinated facilities. The capability of the Company to obtain asset backed finance, combined with the cash flows from its producing assets in Bulgaria and Egypt and its on-going farm-out campaign in Algeria, will provide greater funding certainty in relation to the future development of the Company's Ain Tsila gas discovery and the execution of the appraisal and exploration drilling campaigns.

The Merger has brought together the complementary skill-sets and shared management culture of the experienced operational teams of Petroceltic and Melrose. The Petroceltic team has a proven track record in delivering high-impact exploration and appraisal results in North Africa while the Melrose team has delivered numerous on-shore and off-shore fields through development into production on fast-tracked schedules.

Following Readmission, the composition of the Company's board will be as follows:

The Company also confirms that Mr Andrew Bostock has resigned as a non-executive Director. Mr Bostock has been a director of the Company for over 5 years and served as Chairman from 2009 to 2010. We would like to thank Andrew for the major contribution he has made to growing the business over this period and wish him well for the future.

Further information about the Company, including profiles of its board of directors, are contained in the Admission Document, published on 17 August 2012, which can be found at www.petroceltic.ie. In addition, a copy of the Company's most recent investor presentation can be viewed at www.petroceltic.ie.

Unless otherwise defined, all capitalised terms in this announcement shall have the meaning given to them in the Admission Document, published by Petroceltic on 17 August 2012.

Ends

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Notes to the editors

Petroceltic International plc (AIM:PCI.L, ESM: EG5, ISIN: IE0003186172) is a regionally focused North Africa, Mediterranean and Black Sea independent oil and gas company with a balanced portfolio comprising production, development and high-impact exploration assets. The Company has interests in Bulgaria, Egypt, Algeria, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Italy and Romania and has 2P reserves of 79.2 MMboe as at 30 June 2012 in addition to, contingent resources of 357 MMboe and unrisked prospective resources of 1,365 MMboe as at 1 January 2012.