UK-based Desire Petroleum said that the Dawn/Jacinta 25/5-1 well in the North Falkland basin off the Falkland Islands found no significant hydrocarbon in the prospect after reaching a total depth of 1,697m in pre-rift sediments.
The company said that the well will be plugged and abandoned with gas shows around 1,434m.
The lithology in the section from 1,313m to 1,697m is predominantly good quality claystone with 71m of net reservoir based on initial log analysis.
After completing logging and abandonment operations at Dawn, the company will return the rig to Rockhopper Exploration to drill one or two wells.
Desire will then drill another well at a location yet to be finalized, subject to regulatory approval.
The Dawn well was testing a significant fault block at the southern margin of the main basin, some 28km from previous well control, with primary reservoir targets in the syn-rift and pre-rift.
These targets are stratigraphically older than the reservoirs in the East Flank play, according to the company.