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Circle Oil claims its first gas well in Morocco, at Ouled N’Zala, with gas testing at 3.32 million cubic feet a day.

The Limerick-based company says it has successfully tested the ONZ6 exploration well in the Ouled N’Zala permit, in Morocco’s Rharb Basin to the north-east of the country’s capital, Rabat. AIM-quoted Circle says its six-well drilling programme has now moved to another permit, Sebou.

Chief executive David Hough says the field test results are ‘in line with our expectations for
this area’. The Ouled N’Zala find follows an encouraging discovery last month at North West Gemsa in Egypt. Here, the company’s 40 per cent-owned Al Amir SE-1 sidetrack well tested ‘41-degree API’ oil and gas at sustained rates of 3,388 barrels of oil and 4.25 million cubic feet of gas per day.

Circle shares have been volatile, falling from 41p in March 2006 to 12.25p in April 2007. Now 22.75, they value the company at nearly £77 million and have some long-term speculative appeal.

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Circle Oil	AIM	£59.19m	17.00p	0.50p
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Other company articles:
Circle Oil			11/11/2008
Moroccan find cheers Circle			10/11/2008
Circle hails Egyptian find			03/10/2008
Circle squares up in Iraq			15/05/2006