Circle Oil Tunisia Ltd (a wholly owned subsidiary of Circle Oil Plc.) held interests in two permits in Tunisia, the onshore Ras Marmour permit and the Mahdia permit offshore incorporating the Mahdia discovery. In August 2014, Circle announced a significant discovery at The El Mediouni well, or EMD-1 in the Mahdia permit. The well encountered very good light oil shows across 133 metres. The Company estimated that the likely recoverable resource was approximately . Circle subsequently added that it had been granted a six-month extension to the Mahdia permit to January 2015, and it has the right to make two further 3-year extensions by committing to drill at least one well in each period. The company indicated that it intended to seek a farm in partner with whom to develop the Mahdia discovery. Ras Marmour Permit was located in the south-east of Tunisia covering part of the Island of Djerba and south of the Gulf of Gabès. The permit covered 1,564 km2 and was located in the vicinity of two significant hydrocarbon discoveries and a number of smaller ones. Circle Oil Tunisia held a 23% working interest in the permit. The operator and partner was Exxoil S A., a local Tunisian company. In addition to the two exploration permits, Circle also had an interest in the Beni Khalled production license in Tunisia. Under the terms of the farm in agreement with Exxoil SA, Circle Oil would acquire an initial 30% interest in the Licence in return for funding a 50 km2 3D seismic programme and one well. Historical production on the license has so far produced some and Circle estimates indicated the field had up to remaining to be produced. References Companies of the Republic of Ireland Oil companies of the Republic of Ireland Defunct energy companies of the Republic of Ireland