Operational Update –Mengo-Kundji-Bindi (MKB), Republic of Congo (Brazzaville)

Panoro Energy ASA (“PEN”, OSE ticker code), the independent oil and gas company with assets in West Africa and Brazil is pleased to announce test results from Mengo-Kundji-Bindi (“MKB”), Republic of Congo (Brazzaville).

After initial clean up the KUN-201 well was tested for 5 days at a constant 18/64”choke size. Over this period, the well tested at an average rate of 315 bopd.

A longer production test has now been performed on the KUN-202 well. The well was produced for one day at a 20/64” choke and produced an average of around 700 bopd for that period. The well was then choked back to an 18/64”choke size which is a more representative production setting, and over an 8 day test period the well tested at an average of 383 bopd.

The KUN-203 well was tested for 5 days and over the test period the well flowed on an 18/64” choke size at an average rate of 369 bopd. The well was also flowed at a 20/64” choke for around one day and flowed at an average rate of 586 bopd.

Following these tests the wells will commence commingled production. This is expected to take place during the month of May.

The drilling of the KUN-204 well has progressed according to plan. Drilling of this well is now completed and the well has been logged. Log results will be released in due course. The KUN-205 well has now been spudded and will target a location 950m north by north west of the Kundji 200 platform.

CEO Kjetil Solbrække commented, “We are pleased to have demonstrated that the recent three wells drilled have been able to produce at good rates. We have now drilled and completed 5 wells on the MKB license and all 5 wells have produced oil. This is a step change in success rate, compared to the 17 wells drilled previously of which only 6 were put on production, and this confirms our belief that technological improvements in the last 20 years have allowed this giant low permeability reservoir to be viewed as a commercial development. Given the nature of low permeability reservoirs, the wells are be expected to decline further before reaching a long term trend, but the initial rates are very encouraging. The pace of activity has recently increased and we have now spudded the 5thwell of the 6 well pilot program. As a result of this drilling and testing success, we now expect a ramp-up of operational activities, with additional wells currently being programmed to be drilled during 2012 and beyond”.

The MKB permit is a 700 km2 license onshore in the Republic of Congo.  The Mengo, Kundji and Bindi fields contain light (32° API) oil in low permeability Lower Cretaceous sandstone reservoirs and had a total of six producing wells drilled by Elf in the 1980's and 1990's.  The permit was reissued to Société Nationale des Pétroles du Congo (“SNPC”) and partners in 2009.  Panoro Energy holds 20% in the license.

For further information, please contact:

Jonas Gamre, Finance & Investor Relations Manager
Tel: +47 23 01 10 02
Cell: +47 971 18 292
Email: jonas.gamre@panoroenergy.com  

Carl Peter Berg, VP Commercial and Investor Relations
Tel: +55 21 3078 7472
Cell: +55 21 8541 1907
Email: carl.peter.berg@panoroenergy.com  

Please visit www.panoroenergy.com for more information.