Gulfsands Petroleum : Morocco: Rharb Drilling Programme

London, 12th January, 2015: Gulfsands Petroleum plc ("Gulfsands", the "Group" or the "Company" - AIM: GPX), the oil and gas production, exploration and development company with activities in Syria, Morocco, Tunisia and Colombia is pleased to provide the following update on drilling activities in Morocco.

Operations Update

Well perforating, completion and clean-up operations have now been concluded on the Dardara Southeast 1 well ("DRC-1") located within the Rharb Centre Permit in Northern Morocco.

Following an initial 3 hour well clean-up flow period, the well was fully unloaded of completion fluids to a 100% gas stream.

During a subsequent 6 hour flow period the well flowed at an average gas rate of 7.1 Million standard cubic feet per day on a 32/64th" choke with a stable well head pressure of 1230 pounds per square inch, and with no associated formation water production or sand production.

The well is to be suspended as a future gas production well and the COFOR drilling rig will move to the Douar Ouled Balkhair ("DOB-1") drilling location, where gas exploration well DOB-1 will be spudded later this month. Operations on the DOB-1 well are expected to take 28 days in total.

Subject to finalisation of arrangements with ONHYM, the company anticipates that the DRC-1 well can be connected to existing local infrastructure so that production of gas for sale can commence in the coming months.

Mahdi Sajjad, the Company's CEO commented:

"We are very pleased with the flow result from well DRC-1, the performance of which is consistent with the apparent excellent quality of the reservoir observed from drilling and wire line log information. We look forward to receiving the results from our next exploration well in the Rharb Centre Permit over the next few weeks.

This release has been approved by Ian Conway, Gulfsands Executive Director Technical and Operations, who has Bachelors and Masters degrees in Physics and has 28 years' of experience in petroleum exploration and management. Mr. Conway has consented to the inclusion of the technical information in this release in the form and context in which it appears.

For further information on the matters referred to in this announcement, please refer to the Company's website www.gulfsands.com

Gulfsands Petroleum	[phone]
Mahdi Sajjad, Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Judge, Commercial Director
Buchanan	[phone]
Bobby Morse Ben Romney
RBC Capital Markets	[phone]
Matthew Coakes Daniel Conti Jakub Brogowski
FirstEnergy Capital	[phone]
Jonathan Wright

Certain statements included herein constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. These forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions made by Gulfsands and as such are not a guarantee of future performance. Actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements due to factors such as general economic and market conditions, increased costs of production or a decline in oil and gas prices. Gulfsands is under no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable laws.