Sterling Energy : Delayed Notification of Major Interest in Shares

5 January 2017

Delayed Notification of Major Interest in Shares

Set out below are the TR-1 notifications of a major interest in shares that were received by Sterling Energy plc (the "Company") from each of YF Finance Limited on 15 April 2016, and Exploration Capital Partners 2008, LP, an affiliate of Sprott US Holdings on 14 April 2016. Due an administrative oversight, the Company did not release these announcements to the market at the appropriate time however did update the Company's website to reflect these changes. The Company regrets this late notice to the market and would like to apologise for the delay. The Company confirms that it has corrected the gap in its systems to ensure that future TR-1 notifications are identified quickly and notified to the market in compliance with the DTRs.

Further information can be found on the Company's website at www.sterlingenergyplc.com

Sterling Energy plc Tel: [phone]

Eskil Jersing

Peel Hunt LLP Tel: [phone]

Richard Crichton Ross Allister

TR-1: NOTIFICATION OF MAJOR INTEREST IN SHARESi

1. Identity of the issuer or the underlying issuer of existing shares to which voting rights are attached: ii	Sterling Energy Plc.
2 Reason for the notification (please tick the appropriate box or boxes):
An acquisition or disposal of voting rights
An acquisition or disposal of qualifying financial instruments which may result in the acquisition of shares already issued to which voting rights are attached
An acquisition or disposal of instruments with similar economic effect to qualifying financial instruments
An event changing the breakdown of voting rights		
Other (please specify):

3. Full name of person(s) subject to the notification obligation: iii	YF Finance Limited
4. Full name of shareholder(s) (if different from 3.):iv	See above
5. Date of the transaction and date on which the threshold is crossed or reached: v	6 April 2016
6. Date on which issuer notified:	15 April 2016
7. Threshold(s) that is/are crossed or reached: vi,vii	More than 15%

8. Notified details:
A: Voting rights attached to shares viii,ix
Class/type of shares if possible using the ISIN CODE	Situation previous to the triggering transaction			Resulting situation after the triggering transaction
	Number of Shares	Number of Voting Rights	Number of shares	Number of voting rights		% of voting rights x
			Direct	Direct xi	Indirect xii	Direct	Indirect
GB00B4X3Q493	26,387,105	26,387,105	33,637,105	33,637,105	15.286%

B: Qualifying Financial Instruments
Resulting situation after the triggering transaction
Type of financial	Expiration	Exercise/	Number of voting	% of voting
instrument	date xiii	Conversion Period xiv	rights that may be	rights
			acquired if the
			instrument is
			exercised/ converted.

C: Financial Instruments with similar economic effect to Qualifying Financial Instruments xv, xvi
Resulting situation after the triggering transaction
Type of financial instrument	Exercise price	Expiration datexvii	Exercise/ Conversion period xviii	Number of voting rights instrument refers to	% of voting rights xix,xx

Nominal	Delta

Total (A+B+C)
Number of voting rights	Percentage of voting rights
33,637,105	15.286%

9. Chain of controlled undertakings through which the voting rights and/or the financial instruments are effectively held, if applicable: xxi

Proxy Voting:

10. Name of the proxy holder:

11. Number of voting rights proxy holder will cease to hold:

12. Date on which proxy holder will cease to hold voting rights:

13. Additional information:
14. Contact name:	Jamii Quoc, General Counsel
15. Contact telephone number:	[phone]

TR-1: NOTIFICATION OF MAJOR INTEREST IN SHARESi

1. Identity of the issuer or the underlying issuer of existing shares to which voting rights are attached: ii	STERLING ENERGY PLC
2 Reason for the notification (please tick the appropriate box or boxes):
An acquisition or disposal of voting rights		X
An acquisition or disposal of qualifying financial instruments which may result in the acquisition of shares already issued to which voting rights are attached
An acquisition or disposal of instruments with similar economic effect to qualifying financial instruments
An event changing the breakdown of voting rights
Other (please specify):
3. Full name of person(s) subject to the notification obligation: iii	EXPLORATION CAPITAL PARTNERS 2008, LP
4. Full name of shareholder(s) (if different from 3.):iv	EXPLORATION CAPITAL PARTNERS 2008, LP
5. Date of the transaction and date on which the threshold is crossed or reached: v	APRIL 8, 2016
6. Date on which issuer notified:	APRIL 14, 2016
7. Threshold(s) that is/are crossed or reached: vi,vii	0 ( PERCENT)

8. Notified details:
A: Voting rights attached to shares viii,ix
Class/type of shares if possible using the ISIN CODE	Situation previous to the triggering transaction			Resulting situation after the triggering transaction
	Number of Shares	Number of Voting Rights	Number of shares	Number of voting rights		% of voting rights x
			Direct	Direct xi	Indirect xii	Direct	Indirect
GB00B4X3Q493	6,871,638	6,871,638	0	0	0	0	0

B: Qualifying Financial Instruments