Calgary, Canada, London, United Kingdom; September 29, 2020 - Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited ("COPL" or the "Company") (XOP: CSE) & (COPL: LSE), an international oil and gas exploration and development company focused on sub-Saharan Africa, announces that its Board of Directors approved the granting of 341,609,235 Share Options of the Company effective September 14, 2020.  The Share Options were granted under the Company's Share Option Plan at an exercise price of 0.35 pence per share to the Company's directors, officers, and employees and expire five years from the date of grant. 

The Common Shares are listed under the symbol "XOP" on the CSE and under the symbol "COPL" on the London Stock Exchange.

About the Company:

The Company is actively pursuing opportunities in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa in partnership with Shoreline Energy International Limited ("Shoreline") as part of its strategy to generate stable cash flow from secure offshore and onshore assets. The Company and Shoreline, through their jointly held affiliated company Shoreline Canadian Overseas Petroleum Development Corporation ("ShoreCan"), currently hold 80% of the share capital and have taken over the management of Essar Exploration and Production Limited (Nigeria) ("Nigerian Affiliate" or the "Affiliate"). On August 4, 2020 the Company announced that the shareholders of the Nigerian Affiliate had executed definitive agreements to resolve their disputes. Completion is ongoing, and when completed ShoreCan's shareholding in the Affiliate will change in accordance to the terms outlined in the Press Release. The Affiliate holds an attractive oil appraisal and development project in shallow to mid-water offshore Nigeria on its 100% holding in OPL 226. In other ventures, ShoreCan has been indicatively awarded an exploration license onshore Mozambique in the 5th Licensing Round adjacent to the producing Pande-Temane Gas and light oil field complex.

For further information, please contact:

Mr. Arthur Millholland, President & CEO

Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited 

Tel: + 1 (403) 262 5441

Cathy Hume

CHF Investor Relations

Tel: +1 (416) 868 1079 ext. 231

Email: cathy@chfir.com

Charles Goodwin

Yellow Jersey PR Limited

Tel: +44 (0) 77 4778 8221

Email: copl@yellowjerseypr.com

This news release contains forward-looking statements. The use of any of the words "initial, "scheduled", "can", "will", "prior to", "estimate", "anticipate", "believe", "should", "forecast", "future", "continue", "may", "expect", and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained herein are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the Company, including, but not limited to, the ability to raise the necessary funding for operations, delays or changes in plans with respect to exploration or development projects or capital expenditures. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements since the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties most of which are beyond the control of Canadian Overseas Petroleum Ltd. For example, the uncertainty of reserve estimates, the uncertainty of estimates and projections relating to production, cost overruns, health and safety issues, political and environmental risks, commodity price and exchange rate fluctuations, changes in legislation affecting the oil and gas industry could cause actual results to vary materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking information.  Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date hereof and Canadian Overseas Petroleum undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking statements or information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, unless so required by applicable securities laws.

Neither the CSE nor its regulation services provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.