Cairn Energy well southeast of Norne field comes up dry

Cairn Energy's first exploration well in production licence 758 in the Norwegian Sea came up dry.

The 6508/1-3 wildcat well was drilled roughly six kilometres southeast of the Norne field and 200 kilometres northwest of Brønnøysund to a depth of 1,663 metres.

Well operators encountered roughly 170 metres of alternating layers of sandstone, claystone and coal in the Are formation in the Lower Jurassic.

Nearly fifty metres of sandstone with very good reservoir quality were discovered, but no traces of petroleum.

The well will now be plugged and abandoned and the Transocean Arctic drilling facility will move to drill wildcat well 6608/11-9 in production licence 842, also in the Norwegian Sea, at which Capricorn Norge AS is the operator.

As of 0801 BST, shares of Cairn Energy were dipping 0.35% to 173.10p.