Gran Tierra Energy Inc. Provides Business Update in Response to Oil Price Volatility and COVID-19 and Announces Virtual Annual General Meeting

CALGARY, Alberta, April 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Gran Tierra Energy Inc. (“Gran Tierra” or the “Company”) (NYSE American:GTE)(TSX:GTE)(LSE:GTE) today announced a business update regarding the Company’s proactive measures taken to protect its financial strength in response to the large decrease in world oil prices and the impacts of COVID-19. All dollar amounts are in United States ("U.S.") dollars and production amounts are unaudited and on an average working interest before royalties ("WI") basis, unless otherwise indicated.

Due to the unprecedented challenges of 2020, Gran Tierra has adjusted its production volumes, capital investments and operating and general and administrative (“G&A”) costs to protect the Company’s balance sheet and to preserve long-term value.

Temporarily Suspended Non-Profitable Production: Gran Tierra has temporarily suspended fields with zero or negative netbacks at current oil prices. Precautions to minimize restart costs have been taken in all assets secured during this interim period of low oil prices. At present, most of the Company’s minor fields have been suspended, resulting in the shut-in of approximately 2,500 barrels (“bbl”) of oil per day (“bopd”). Procedures and precautions were followed to ensure mechanical and reservoir integrity and security of the assets for an extended period, and to minimize the cost and timing of resuming production. As previously announced, another 4,000 bopd remains shut-in and waterflood operations remain suspended at the Suroriente and PUT-7 Blocks in the southern Putumayo region due to a local farmers’ blockade. With all of the shut-in fields producing from conventional reservoirs and properly suspended, the Company is confident that production and waterflood operations can be resumed efficiently to the same pre-suspension production levels once the COVID-19, blockade and economic restrictions pass.

In addition, approximately 4,800 bopd of production that are awaiting routine mechanical workovers will remain offline during the low-price environment. The Colombian government has deemed the oil and gas industry to be a strategic sector and the continuity of the oil and gas value chain is not restricted by government actions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, some mobility and logistics issues may result in delays to the restarting of certain oil fields and mechanical workover services.