Savannah Petroleum has noted the signature of a Memorandum of Understanding ('MoU') between the Governments of the Republic of Niger and the Federal Republic of Nigeria in relation to the export of crude oil from the Agadem Rift Basin ('ARB') of South East Niger to Nigeria (the 'Niger-Nigeria Export Project').

The MoU was signed by the Minister of Petroleum of Niger, Mr. Foumakoye Gado, and the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources of Nigeria, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, and witnessed by President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger and President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria. Savannah, China National Petroleum Corporation ('CNPC') and various other project stakeholders and dignitaries were also in attendance.

The MoU envisages the construction of an export pipeline from the ARB to a refinery in Katsina State, Northern Nigeria. The Steering and Technical Committees in relation to the project were also inaugurated at today's ceremony.

The MoU follows the upstream approval granted by the Republic of Niger to CNPC earlier this year in relation to the Agadem PSC Exclusive Exploitation Area 3, the entire production from which is expected to be exported from Niger using newbuild infrastructure to Northern Nigeria or though export terminals in either Benin or Cameroon.

Andrew Knott, CEO of Savannah Petroleum, said:
"We expect the Niger-Nigeria Export Project to provide one of the potential routes to market for Savannah's existing and future discoveries in Niger. The degree of high level support for the project from both countries is clear, as is the significant positive economic impact it has the potential to deliver. We expect significant progress to be made over the course of the next six months.

This project compliments our plans to initiate an early production system for the R3 East area of our R3/R4 PSC in the ARB, which we hope will enable early monetisation of our recent discoveries."