East West Petroleum Plans to Treble Production in Egypt

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA--(Marketwire - March 17, 2011) - East West Petroleum Corp. (the "Company" or "East West Petroleum") (TSX VENTURE:EW) is pleased to provide a 2011 drilling and operations update for the Burg El Arab concession ("BEA"), located in the Western Desert of Egypt. 

Gross production from BEA is approximately 500 barrels of oil per day ("bopd") and the 2011 work programme is designed to delineate the reservoirs and to treble production to 1400 bopd during the year. Gaffeny Cline, an independent engineering firm, has been retained to complete a NI 51-101 compliant report for the BEA field. A final report is expected early next month.

Operationally three development wells, BEA 8, 9 and 10 are planned to commence drilling in May, to develop oil accumulations in the Abu Roash G dolomite formation and the deeper Bahariya clastics section. The development wells will also evaluate the deeper Al Amaine dolomite formation where oil has previously been encountered. There will also be a six-well workover program during 2011 to increase and accelerate field production. In addition one exploration well will be drilled during the second half of 2011 to test a separate fault block in the 72 square kilometre BEA development lease.

The total capital expenditure programme for 2011 is US$26.1 million, (US$5.2 million net to East West). This includes the above well programme and the construction of 4" field production pipelines,a 6" shipping pipeline from the BEA facilities to the Western Desert Petroleum Company crude collection station and construction of a storage tank at the Al Hamra port.

Management would like to emphasize that speaking with their partner, Kuwait Energy that they have been informed that operations in Egypt have not been affected and there has been no impact on production from BEA; though there have been some operational delays in moving drilling equipment to the site. 

East West Petroleum and its partners are evaluating the feasibility of co-producing the Al Amaine where oil bearing with the Abu Roash G and Barhariya clastics in the BEA field. Well testing in the new development and exploration wells will enable evaluation of the impact on production of fracing the vertical wells and drilling horizontal wells in tighter zones. Other operators in the western desert have significantly improved production rates and reservoir recovery factors through reservoir fracturing programs. 

Under the Heads of Agreement with Kuwait Energy, East West, under the guidance of Dr. Marc Bustin, has commenced an evaluation program of some 5 million acres currently under licence by Kuwait Energy in Yemen, Ukraine, Egypt and Russia. The evaluation is focused on both recognition of potential unconventional resource plays as well the application of unconventional drilling and completion technologies to optimise production of conventional reservoirs currently under development or testing by Kuwait Energy. 

Dr. Marc Bustin (Ph.D., P. Geol., FRSC ) is a qualified person and has reviewed and approved the technical information included in this news release.

ABOUT EAST WEST PETROLEUM CORP.

East West Petroleum Corp. trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol EW. East West is an emerging exploration and production company focused on conventional and unconventional petroleum resources.

Currently the company has assets in Egypt, 1 million acres in Romania and a Heads of Agreement with Kuwait Energy to study and participate in 5 million acres in Egypt, Ukraine, Russia and Yemen.

ABOUT KUWAIT ENERGY

Established in Kuwait in August 2005, Kuwait Energy Company is an independent Oil & Gas Exploration and Production company. Kuwait Energy Company prides itself as an Oil & Gas company with extensive knowledge of the Middle East region with outstanding relations with host governments, national oil companies and international companies that operate in the Middle East.

Kuwait Energy has a high quality and diverse portfolio of oil and gas assets and is focused on exploration, production and development of oil and gas reserves in the MENA and Eurasia regions.

Headquartered in Kuwait, the Company's regional offices include Cairo, Sana'a, Baghdad, Basra, Ukhta and Kiev, overseeing operations in seven countries namely Egypt, Yemen, Oman, Ukraine, Latvia, Russia and Pakistan. Our participation interests range from 15% to 100% across our exploration and producing assets, providing a balance of risk diversification with significant upside exploration potential.

Kuwait Energy is one of the fastest growing, independent, oil and gas exploration & production companies in the Middle East and has assets in 8 countries; Egypt, Iraq, Yemen, Oman, Ukraine, Latvia, Russia and Pakistan.

In the past five years, Kuwait Energy has demonstrated its ability to grow production and reserves year on‐ year and has been profitable since inception. The Company has increased its operatorship of assets and demonstrated operator capability, established a qualified and experienced management team and developed an extensive contact network within regional governments and industry. The Company has developed and implemented a Health, Safety, Environment and Social Responsibility (HSESR) policy and processes to meet industry/regulatory requirements as an international operator of oil & gas fields.