Chariot Oil and Gas, an Africa-focused exploration company, has reported that the Tapir South well (1811/5-1), offhore Namibia, failed to find commercial hydrocarbons, and will now be plugged and abandoned.
The share price plunged 41.71% to 87.00p in morning trade.
However, some of the results from the test drilling did exceed the company's expectations, with two zones having average porosities of 24%, with evidence of good permeabilities.
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Chief Executive Officer Paul Welch said: "Whilst the results of the Tapir South well are disappointing, this is the first well of a longer term drilling campaign within a frontier region and only the second well ever to have been drilled in the Namibe basin. Our understanding of this basin is rapidly improving and we expect this well to provide more information on the character and maturity of the potential source rocks when we carry out detailed analyses on the recovered samples."
As is usual whenever an oil explorer finds a dry well, the company stressed that the exercise had not been a total waste of time, as the drilling provided "invaluable information for improving the assessment of source risk on other prospects in close proximity" while also furthering the company's knowledge of the region.
Chariot and its partners are on track to begin the drilling of the Kabeljou (2714/6-1) well in the third quarter of this year. It will be the second well in the company's four to five well drilling programme.
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