EDINBURGH-based Cairn Energy has suffered a drilling disappointment in the Norwegian North Sea with a pioneering well.
The oil and gas independent noted the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate had said a well on the Presto prospect, in which it has a stake, was dry.
The well was the first drilled on production licence 885 which is in the Northern North Sea.
Cairn made no comment on the announcement.
In its annual results in March, Cairn said it expected to drill four wells in the UK and Norway region this year including Presto.
The programme includes a well on the Chimera prospect in UK waters and three off Norway.
Presto was operated by Norwegian oil giant Equinor. Cairn will operate the other three wells.
The company’s chief executive, Simon Thomson, has underlined Cairn’s belief in the potential to make big finds off the UK and Norway.
In November Cairn made a find thought to contain up to 50 million barrels oil equivalent with the Agar-Plantain well drilled east of Shetland with Azinor Catalyst and Faroe Petroleum.
Under Mr Thomson’s lead the company has combined what it regards as relatively low risk activity in the UK with potentially high impact exploration work in areas where there has been little drilling by industry standards, such as Senegal.
Cairn said last month it expects to start production in 2022 from its SNE find off Senegal. First production from the Nova field off Norway is due in 2021.
Cairn Energy shares closed up 3.3p at 160.6p.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here