Russian oil company Lukoil has abandoned a second exploratory drilling project in the Caspian Tyub-Karagan field after failing to find any oil or gas.
Lukoil and its 50-50 partner in the project, Kazakhstani state operation Kazmunaigaz, decided to end the exploration of the Tyub-Karagan Block in the Caspian Sea after drilling to the planned depth of 2,500 meters without success.
According to the Oil and Gas Journal, the well was to have evaluated Jurassic, Cretaceous, and Triassic sediments on a 1,372 sq km block.
The failure comes as a costly disappointment for Lukoil, which was meeting all the exploration phase expenses. The major independent Russian energy outfit had hoped to yield in the region of 324 million metric tons of oil, with a maximum annual output of seven million tons from the Tyub-Karagan field, according to Novosti. However, in the face in two failures, speculation has increased that Lukoil may be ready to buy its way out of the joint venture.