April 17 (Reuters) - Shares in oil companies Tullow Oil, Royal Dutch Shell and Total SA, fellafter a well in offshore French Guiana did not find significanthydrocarbons.
Shell, Total, Tullow Oil, Northern Petroleum andWessex Exploration, which together own the permit tothe block, said they have decided to drill further at the well.
Tullow Oil, which was trading down 10 percent, was thebiggest percentage loser on the FTSE 100 index.
Shares in Shell and Total were down about 2 percent inmidday trading. Shell was taking 7.87 points off the FTSE 100 -the biggest single drag on the index.
Northern Petroleum was down 18 percent, while Wessex plunged33 percent.
The GM-ES-3 exploration well at the Guyane permit is thesecond well of a four-well exploration drilling campaign at theproject that began in 2012, following oil discovery at theGM-ES-1 well in 2011.
The GM-ES-3 well intersected a 50 metres gross section ofoil stained sands and is now targeted to reach a final depth of6438 meters. (Reporting by Brenton Cordeiro in Bangalore, additionalreporting by David Brett in London; Editing by SaumyadebChakrabarty)
