Tullow Oil Marina-1 well shows no significant hydrocarbons

Tullow holds a 35% interest in the well, while operator Karoon Energy holds a 40% interest and Pitkin Petroleum the remaining 25%.

The well will now be plugged and abandoned.

Chief operating officer Mark MacFarlane said: "This is the first ever well in the deep-water section of the under-explored Tumbes basin. We will now integrate the important well information with the seismic data that we are currently reprocessing and update our prospect inventory for blocks Z-38 and Z-64.

"Tullow is building an extensive exploration position in Peru and, while this result is not what we had hoped for, we remain positive about Peru's wider offshore exploration potential."

At 0805 GMT, the shares were down 3.3% at 43.77p.