Drilling blow for Tullow in Norway

One of the Norwegian exploration prospects in which Irish-founded company, Tullow Oil, has a significant interest, has been partially abandoned after its chief operator found no evidence of hydrocarbons from exploratory drilling.

Swedish exploration and production company, Lundin Petroleum said yesterday that its subsidiary, Lundin Norway, had completed the drilling of a ‘wildcat’ well on the Carlsberg Prospect in the North Sea, off the Norwegian coast, to no avail.

“The exploration well 7/4-3 was targeting the Upper Triassic and Upper Cretaceous reservoirs of the Carlsberg prospect. The well encountered no hydrocarbons and is being plugged and abandoned as a dry hole,” Tullow, which has a 40% stake in the Carlsberg prospect, said yesterday.

The wildcat well was drilled to a depth of 2,957 metres below sea level.

A second exploration target of the well — aimed at proving petroleum in the Upper Cretaceous chalk reservoir — was found to be water-bearing, with no presence of hydrocarbons.

Tullow — whose core assets are in Africa — expanded into Norway at the turn of the year through its near €290m acquisition of Spring Energy, which brought with it up to 15 new licences.

Elsewhere yesterday Falcon Oil & Gas — the Dublin-headquartered exploration company which took a dual share listing in London and Dublin earlier this year — announced it has commenced its planned multi-well drilling programme in Hungary.

Falcon — which is headed up by former Providence Resources finance director Philip O’Quigley — has nearly 15m acres of prospective onshore land across three under-explored basins in Hungary, Australia and South Africa. It is classified as an unconventional explorer, given its use of alternative techniques — such as fracking — to the usual model of oil well drilling.

The company is drilling in Hungary — in an area called the Mako Trough — with development partner, Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS).

The Serbian company, which has signed a drilling contract with a German-based drilling company, will cover all costs with revenues shared equally between it and Falcon.

The programme will begin looking for gas prospects in the highly-prospective Algyo Formation, with well spudding expected next month.