Bowleven, the Africa focused oil and gas company traded on AIM, is pleased to announce the spud of the IE-4 appraisal well at the Etinde block, Cameroon, by the block's operator, New Age Cameroon Offshore Petroleum SA ("NewAge").

The IE-4 well is the second of two appraisal wells to be drilled in 2018. The Etinde Joint Venture partners have contracted the Vantage jack-up rig "Topaz Driller" for this campaign. Drilling and logging operations of IE-4 is expected to take approximately 90 days in total with Schlumberger providing most of the drilling services.

The IE-4 well will target a previously undrilled sand package "Drillbit" of Intra-Isongo origin, which is believed to be analogous to the 410 sand package at the IM-5 location. Any discovery in this appraisal well could prove up or de-risk a further 0.2 to 0.6 tcf of resources (Drillbit, Bolt, Crowbar sites).

It is expected that it will be required to drill to -2840 meters True Vertical Depth Subsea ("TVDSS") to fully penetrate the prognosed reservoir targets. A further ~50 meter rat hole will be required to allow for logging sump. Well Total Depth will be at -2890 meters TVDSS.

New Age is the operator of the Etinde field, with a 37.5% working interest. Bowleven and LUKOIL are partners with a 25% and 37.5% working interest respectively. The Company intends to announce the final well results after the end of drilling and testing operations.