Shares in oil explorer Desire Petroleum have plummeted after the company admitted defeat on a well after revealing it had high hopes of success with.
Malvern-based Desire (DES) continues to have a frustrating time in its drilling programme at the North Falklands Basin, after the latest announcement dashed hopes raised last week when the company said it had found oil at the prospect.
Subsequent sampling of the sand from the main interval located by the drilling has shown that the hydrocarbons are residual and that the mobile fluid is water.
The news sent the company’s share price shooting down, with 62.75p being wiped off within two hours of the statement, leaving the price at 70.5p.
Chairman Stephen Phipps said: “It is extremely disappointing that the subsequent wireline logs and fluids sampling have dashed all the earlier promise of this being Desire’s first oil discovery in the North Falkland Basin.
“ Despite this setback, the presence of hydrocarbons and good reservoir development have been identified in a number of the Rachel fan sands and we therefore continue to believe in the prospectivity of the East Flank Play fairway for future oil discoveries.”
