Exercise of Options

Immediate Release 18 June 2008

Gulfsands Petroleum plc ("Gulfsands" or "the Company")

Exercise of options

Gulfsands announces  that  it  has  issued a  total  of  793,750  new
ordinary shares in respect of the exercise of share options.

568,750 ordinary shares in  the Company have  been issued to  Nordman
Continental S.A., a company owned  by a discretionary trust of  which
the children of  Mr. Mahdi  Sajjad, a  Director of  the Company,  are
potential beneficiaries.  These shares  have been issued pursuant  to
the exercise  of options  to purchase  ordinary shares  at $0.43  per
share, which options  were issued  on June 17,  2008 as  "replacement
options" to replace a like number  of options on the same terms  that
expired unexercised on January 1, 2008 .

The original options were issued to Nordman Continental S.A. in 2003,
prior to Admission of the Company's shares to trading on AIM.  As  Mr
Sajjad was in  possession of price  sensitive information during  the
final two  months  of 2007  and  the  early months  of  2008  Nordman
Continental  S.A.  was  unable  to  exercise  the  options  and  they
therefore expired unexercised.

The Board believes  it is  in the best  interests of  the Company  to
replace the expired options so  as to allow Nordman Continental  S.A.
the opportunity to exercise the same, and it therefore resolved in  a
board meeting  held on  17 June  2008 to  re-issue these  options  to
Nordman Continental S.A. at $0.43 per share exercisable for one month
from the date of grant. The  Company's Share Option Plan was  amended
to permit this grant and to ensure  that there is now a mechanism  to
deal with such eventualities should they occur again in the future.

Nordman Contintental S.A.  exercised these  options immediately  upon
grant and is now interested in 8,710,625 ordinary shares representing
7.4 per cent. of the Company's issued share capital.

In addition, on 12 June 2008  the Company issued 225,000 shares to  a
former consultant  following  the exercise  of  options at  130p  per
share.

Application will be made for the shares to be admitted to trading  on
AIM and Admission is expected to take place on 24 June 2008.

For more information please contact:


Gulfsands Petroleum plc (London)           [phone]
Kenneth Judge, Director of Development     [phone]
Jon Bey, Investor Relations: North America + 1 866 689 2599
Buchanan Communications Limited (London)   [phone]
Bobby Morse
RBC Capital Markets (London)               [phone]
Andrew K Smith
Sarah Wharry

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