Canadian Overseas Petroleum annunces £2.5M offering

News Release

£2.5 million Common Share Offering
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Calgary, Canada, October 2, 2017 – Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited (the “Company”) (TSXV: XOP) (LSE: COPL), is pleased to announce an offering of common shares in the capital of the Company to raise gross proceeds of £2.5 million (the “Placing”), pursuant to which the Company will issue 250,000,000 new common shares (“Placing Shares”) to UK investors at a price of 1 penny (£0.01) per Placing Share.

The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the Placing to fund the Company’s on-going general and administrative expenses which principally covers a full technical team including geologists, a geophysicist, reservoir engineers, a drilling engineer and in-house counsel, which are approximately US$410,000 per month, as the Company seeks to progress its projects in West Africa.

The Company’s other financial commitments for the 12 month period, following the publication of the Company’s Prospectus approved by the UK Listing Authority dated 8 June 2017, include 50% of the costs relating to Shoreline Canadian Overseas Petroleum Development Corporation’s (“ShoreCan”) commitment to invest funds in the form of an interest-free shareholder loan to be used for its 80% owned Essar Exploration and Production Limited (Nigeria) (“Essar”) operations. As previously announced the Company has engaged COFARCO SAS of Paris France and Zeus Capital of London United Kingdom to source the required funds at the project level and is making encouraging progress towards securing funds for its appraisal and development project at OPL 226, offshore Nigeria. The Company remains confident that it will meet the target to drill an appraisal well in late 2017 or early 2018 with a subsequent Early Production Scheme being put in place shortly after.

The Placing is subject to customary conditions and the receipt of required regulatory approvals, including the approval of the London Stock Exchange plc (“London Stock Exchange”) and the TSX Venture Exchange (the “TSX-V”). An application is being made to the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) for the Placing Shares to be admitted to the standard listing segment of the Official List maintained by the FCA, and to trading on the London Stock Exchange’s main market for listed securities and are expected to be admitted to trading on 16 October 2017.

Following the issue of the Placing Shares, the Company will have 1,523,139,350 common shares in the capital of the Company (the “Common Shares”).

Arthur Millholland, President & CEO, commented: “This Placing will strengthen our Balance Sheet while we concurrently work towards finalising the project financing, operations program and plan for our OPL 226 project offshore Nigeria.”

About the Company:

The Company is an international oil and gas exploration and development company focused in offshore West Africa.

The Company is actively pursuing opportunities in Nigeria in partnership with Shoreline Energy as part of its strategy to generate stable cash flow from secure offshore assets. The Company and Shoreline, through their jointly held affiliated company Shoreline Canadian Overseas Petroleum Development Corporation (“ShoreCan”), has acquired 80% of the share capital, and has taken over the management, of Essar Exploration and Production Limited (Nigeria) (“Essar”). Essar holds an attractive oil appraisal and development project in shallow to mid-water offshore Nigeria on its 100% holding in OPL 226. Drilling of the first appraisal well is planned to commence in late 2017. ShoreCan is currently waiting for final approval from the Government of Nigeria for the acquisition.
ShoreCan is building a portfolio of exploration and development assets in sub-Saharan Africa. To date, ShoreCan has taken a position in Nigeria. It continues to evaluate a variety of additional assets in Nigeria, Mozabique and Equatorial Guinea.

The Common Shares are listed under the symbol “XOP” on the TSXV and under the symbol “COPL” on the London Stock Exchange.

For further information, please contact:

Mr. Arthur Millholland, President & CEO
Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited
Tel: + 1 (403) 262 5441

Cathy Hume
CHF Investor Relations
Tel: +1 (416) 868 1079 ext. 231
Email: cathy@chfir.com

Harriet Jackson/Charles Goodwin
Yellow Jersey PR
Tel: +44 (0) 75 4427 5882
Email: copl@yellowjerseypr.com

Broker: London Stock Exchange
Shore Capital Stockbrokers Limited
Edward Mansfield
Phone: T: +44 20 7468 7906