26 March 2015                                                                                                                                                          

Bowleven plc ("Bowleven" or "the Company")

Vesting of Deferred Awards to directors pursuant to the Bowleven Long Term Incentive Plan and vesting of Deferred Share Award

Bowleven wishes to announce that the undernoted Awards originally made under the Bowleven Long Term Incentive Plan ("LTIP") on 6 December 2009 ("the 2009 Awards") vested in favour of the undernoted directors on 25 March 2015.

The deferred awards listed below represent 20% of the 2009 Awards on the basis that Bowleven's Total Shareholder Return (TSR) calculated in accordance with the terms of the LTIP over the 3 year performance period ending on 10 December 2012 was in median place in the Comparator List.  The Awards below should ordinarily have vested in December 2012 in accordance with the LTIP scheme rules but, by agreement with the Directors affected, the Company's Remuneration Committee deferred vesting until completion of the Lukoil/New Age Etinde Farm-in transaction:- 

In addition to the above, Kerry Crawford, the Company's Finance Director, received a further 21,249 shares under a Deferred Share Award dated 28 December 2012.  This Deferred 2012 Share Award was made in lieu of part of Mrs Crawford's 2012 performance bonus.  The Deferred 2012 Share Award was likewise deferred until completion of the Lukoil/New Age Etinde Farm-in transaction.

Although the Lukoil/New Age Farm-in transaction formally completed on Monday 16 March 2015, the Company was in a close period (under the AIM Rules) on that date and continued to be so until announcement of the Company's interim results yesterday and therefore the above Awards vested at the end of that close period, on 25 March 2015.

Further to vesting of the deferred 2009 LTIP Awards and the vesting of Mrs Crawford's Deferred 2012 Share Award, the above shares have been transferred to the relevant individuals by the trustee of the Company's Employee Benefit Trust.   

Following these transfers, instructions were given by Kerry Crawford and Chief Tabetando to sell a proportion of their entitlement, in the case of Kerry Crawford only to sell such number of shares as was necessary to account for the tax payable on the vesting of her Awards.  The number of shares sold on behalf of Mrs Crawford and Chief Tabetando are set out below.  The sales were made on 25 March at a sale price of 30 pence per share:-

Further Directors' Share Purchases

In addition, the Company announces that the following directors purchased shares in the Company on 25 March 2015 at a price of 30 pence per share:-

^{·     Peter Wilson's shares were purchased by his Self-Invested Pension Plan (SIPP)}

Following the above transactions, the interests of the above directors in the shares of Bowleven are as follows:-

ENQUIRIES

For further information please contact:

Bowleven plc

Kevin Hart, Chief Executive                                                        00 44 131 524 5678

Peter G Wilson, Company Secretary      

Brunswick Group LLP

Patrick Handley                                                                                00 44 207 404 5959

Simon Maine                                                                    

Macquarie Capital (Europe) Limited (Nomad)                                                   

Jon Fitzpatrick                                                                                   00 44 203 037 2000

Ken Fleming

Nick Stamp