Solo Oil and partners fail to find gas in UK well

A string of oil companies have announced that part of a well near Gatwick airport in southern England has come up dry, knocking their shares.The companies, including Stellar Resources, Solo Oil, Regency Mines, UK Oil & Gas Investments, Alba Mineral Resources and Doriemus, said exploration of the Triassic target in the Horse Hill-1 well had failed to find any gas.Last month, the companies said they had found an oil accumulation in the well on the northern side of the Weald Basin.Stellar and the others own stakes in Horse Hill Development Ltd (HHDL), a special purpose company which owns a 65% participating interest in licences in the Weald Basin. Magellan Petroleum Corporation owns the other 35%.Solo Oil's chairman Neil Ritson said the group and its partners were now assessing the potential for oil strikes nearby."Whilst we are naturally disappointed that there was no gas discovery in the Triassic, we remain delighted the well has made an oil discovery in the Jurassic Portland Sandstone and that further opportunities for additional oil potential have also been revealed by the well."Shares in Solo fell 0.22p or 27.6% to 0.56p at 16:01 in London.