(Ecofin Agency) - Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited (COPL) has announced that the Mesurado-1 well, which reached final total depth on December 17, 2016 will be plugged and abandoned. Drilling operations on the exploration well began on November 21, 2016 using the drillship Seadrill West Saturn.

The well, which was targeting oil in a sequence of Late Cretaceous Santonian aged sands, encountered 145 metres of net sand of which 118 metres was considered to be reservoir quality. No hydrocarbons were shown by the logging while drilling operations was being carried out across the targeted intervals. As a result, the operator has informed the company that no further logging operations will be performed and the well will be plugged and abandoned, Energy-pedia news reports.

Operated by ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Liberia Ltd, the Mesurado-1 well is situated about 50 miles offshore Liberia on Block LB-13, in around 2500 metres of water.

“We are naturally disappointed by the lack of hydrocarbons in the targeted reservoir sands in the Mersurado-1 well. The targeted Santonian sand sequence and thickness intersected was in accordance with our seismic interpretation. The lack of hydrocarbons at this location where our seismic data presented attributes indicative of hydrocarbons will cause us to do additional work on the 3D seismic over the Block, and reevaluate the other leads we have mapped on LB-13,” Arthur Millholland, Chief executive of COPL, said.

Anita Fatunji