Panoro Energy Announces Drilling Operations Update in the Pre-Salt Offshore Gabon

2/11/2013 1:00 AM EST

Panoro Energy ASA is pleased to announce an update to its drilling
operations in the Dussafu Tortue Marin-1 (DTM-1) well drilled in the
Dussafu Marin PSC, offshore Gabon, West Africa.

The DTM-1 well was initially drilled in 118 meters of water to a
vertical depth of 3,430 meters. On January 4, 2013, Panoro announced an
oil discovery in the pre-salt Gamba and Dentale reservoirs with plans to
drill a sidetrack to appraise the extent of the Dentale oil discovery.

The Tortue oil discovery has been appraised by drilling a sidetrack (DTM
-1ST1) to the southwest to test the lateral extent and structural
elevation of both the Gamba and Dentale reservoirs. The sidetrack was
drilled to a Total Depth (TD) in the Dentale of 3,470 meters, (3,289
meters True Vertical Depth Subsea (TVDSS) approximately 550 meters from
the original wellbore and found 20 meters of oil pay in the primary
Dentale reservoir with better reservoir character and an apparent
similar fluid level to that encountered in the vertical well, DTM-1. In
addition several other stacked sands with oil shows were encountered,
however due to a stuck downhole tool, logging operations in the
sidetrack were terminated early before pressure data could be collected
to confirm connectivity.

The well will now be suspended pending future appraisal and development
activities.  The rig will be demobilized and released due to expiry of
the rig contract.

Reservoir and conceptual engineering studies will start with the aim of
evaluating the commerciality of the discovered oil in the Gamba and
Dentale reservoirs at Tortue, as well as Panoro's previous Ruche oil
discovery and the nearby Walt Whitman and Moubenga oil discoveries to
determine the optimum development options for the block.

The addition of the Tortue oil discovery extends the proven fairway for
stacked pre-salt reservoirs and has demonstrated the exploration
potential for the outboard part of the Dussafu license.

Dussafu Marin is operated by Harvest Dussafu, B.V., an affiliate of
Harvest Natural Resources, Inc. Panoro Energy has a 33.33% stake held
through a subsidiary company.

For further information, please contact:

Nishant Dighe, President Africa
Cell: +44 7747807439
Email:  

Carl Peter Berg, VP Commercial and Investor Relations
Cell: +55 21 8541 1907
Email:  

Please visit www.panoroenergy.com for more information. Panoro Energy
ASA is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (Ticker code: "PEN")