(Alliance News) - Hurricane Energy PLC is to abandon and plug the Warwick Deep well, it said Monday, after it did not produce at commercial rates.
Shares were down 17% on Monday morning in London at a price of 43.80 pence each.
Hurricane had drilled the offshore North Sea well to 1,964 metres, with results indicating a 712-metre horizontal section of fractured basement reservoir.
However, initial analysis suggests the well found a "poorly" connected part of the fracture network within the oil column, and the well produced at non-commercial rates.
Following plugging and abandoning Warwick Deep, Hurricane will move the rig to the Lincoln Crestal wall, the second of three wells on the Greater Warwick Area.
Chief Executive Robert Trice said: "It is disappointing the Warwick Deep well did not flow at commercial rates. We were initially encouraged by hydrocarbon shows and gas ratio analysis indicative of light oil, however, drill stem testing has clearly demonstrated Warwick Deep cannot be considered suitable as a future production well and therefore the well will be plugged and abandoned.
"I look forward to commencing operations on the second well in the three-well programme, Lincoln Crestal. This is now the preferred candidate to be tied back to the Aoka Mizu floating production, storage, and offloading vessel, where Lancaster early production system production operations remain in-line with guidance."
Hurricane sold its first cargo from the Lancaster field, located near the Shetland islands.