Faroe Petroleum of Aberdeen saw its shares fall yesterday after disappointing news on a Norwegian well.
The firm said oil was discovered on both the T-Rex and Bolan exploration prospects in the Norwegian Sea, but not in commercial quantities. T-Rex and Bolan are next to the Statoil-operated producing Smorbukk oil fields on the Halten Terrace.
The drilling operation was undertaken by Maersk Oil as operator (70% interest), using the Transocean Winner rig, and the well is now being plugged and abandoned.
Faroe has a 30% stake in the licence. Graham Stewart, chief executive of the Granite City firm, said: “We are pleased to announce the presence of oil on both the T-Rex and the Bolan prospects, but are disappointed the reservoir intervals were not as thick as we had hoped for at this target location.
“The well does, however, provide very important new data and information which will allow further evaluation and de-risking of this exciting exploration province in which Faroe has a number of licences.
“This was Faroe’s first well targeting Cretaceous reservoirs on the Halten Terrace, where we made the significant Maria discovery in 2010.
“In addition to our evaluation of the remaining potential on Licence PL431, we will apply these new data directly to calibrate and identify the follow-up potential of several Cretaceous potential prospects we have in this area.”
“As we continue with our significant multiwell drilling programme, we also look forward to the next exploration wells scheduled for the second quarter of 2012 being North Uist, west of the Shetland; Clapton, in Norway and Cooper, in Norway.”
Faroe shares finished down 5% at 156.6p.