Petronas subsidiary PSE Seven Heads' Midleton well offshore Ireland has failed to discover commercial quantities of gas, according to partner Landsdowne Oil & Gas.
PSE Seven Heads, a subsidiary of Petronas' PSE Kinsale Energy reached target depth in the well, in the Celtic Sea, at 3393ft true vertical depth below sea level. Good quality reservoirs were encountered in the Greensand and Upper Wealden formations of the Lower Cretaceous.
Some gas was present in the Greensand but the volumes were not considered commercial and the Upper Wealden was water wet. The well will be plugged and abandoned.
The well was drilled using Diamond Offshore Drilling's Ocean Guardian semisubmersible in SEL 4/07, which covers part-blocks 49/11, 49/12, 49/17 and 49/18, immediately southeast of the Kinsale Head gas field, in the Celtic Sea offshore southeast Ireland.
Kinsale Energy holds 80% interest in the license with Lansdowne holding the remaining 20%.
The Midleton prospect, about 20km northeast of the Kinsale Head field, had been estimated to contain 330 Bcf gas initially in place, according to Landsdowne, whose share price has tanked since the new was announced..
Kinsale Energy has been production natural gas from its facilities off the Old Head of Kinsale since 1978. The company was acquired by Petronas in April 2009. Kinsale Energy also operates Kinsale Head, Ballycotton and Seven Heads gas fields in the Celtic Sea and a natural gas storage field (Southwest Kinsale).