Canadian Forest Oil Exercised Completion Option on Two Yamaska Wells

Gastem reports that partner Canadian Forest Oil has exercised its completion option on the two Yamaska wells drilled by Gastem in the summer of 2007, St Francois du Lac #1 and St Louis de Richelieu #1. Under the terms of the agreement, Forest will now proceed with completion work on the Utica shale formation, which may include fracturing and horizontal drilling. As specified in the agreement, Canadian Forest Oil will also immediately reimburse to Gastem half of the exploration and drilling costs for the two Yamaska wells.

"This milestone is an important step for the Yamaska shale gas project and is indicative of our motives in drilling the two wells this summer," said Raymond Savoie, chairman and CEO of Gastem. "We are all very anxious to see this move forward to the next level. We believe that Forest Oil's increased involvement and resource play expertise are key factors and that the Yamaska Property has what is needed."

Forest Oil has an option to gain an interest of up to 60% in Gastem's Yamaska Property which covers 45,381 hectares (112,136 acres) by spending $10M on the Yamaska property over the next 18 months after completion tests.

Gastem (41.5 M shares outstanding) is an independent oil and gas exploration company based in Montreal. The company holds exploration and storage rights to 3,135 square kilometers of land in the St. Lawrence Lowlands and the Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec as well as rights and interests in Alberta and West Virginia. In 2007, Gastem expects near term revenue from a participation in the Amber Bank shale gas project with Epsilon Energy in West Virginia.