LONDON (Alliance News) - Fastnet Oil & Gas PLC Tuesday said it has failed to find commercial hydrocarbons at its first well in a series of wells designed to open up a new major producing region in the Foum Assaka offshore block in Morocco.
The exploration and production company, with activities in Africa and the Celtic Sea, said the FA-1 well reached a total depth of 3,830 metres and will now be plugged and abandoned after it failed to find high enough levels of oil and gas.
However, the company said the well did find certain levels of oil and gas shows while drilling and in its sidewall cores, which it said suggests the presence of a working petroleum system.
Fastnet said the well has also provided key seismic calibration information, and the well results will now be integrated into the site operator's ongoing petroleum system analysis in order to help improve the development of further wells at the site.
The company announced the start of drilling at the site in March and said at the time that the well is estimated to contain 360 million barrels of oil equivalent in its primary deepwater lower Cretaceous reservoir objective area.
The news comes a week after Fastnet formally completed the sale of 9.375% interest in its Foum Assaka licence to SK Innovation Co Ltd, subject to a payment of USD20.4 million in accumulated back costs, which reduced Fastnet's stake in the site to the same 9.375% as SK will have.
Fastnet Oil & Gas shares were down 33% to 7.10 pence, making it the biggest AIM ALL-Share faller in early trading Tuesday.
By Tom McIvor; tommcivor@alliancenews.com; @TomMcIvor1
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