Buru finds no oil in Praslin 1

Oil and gas producer Buru Energy has fallen on news its Praslin 1 well in the Canning Basin had come up dry.

The company said after recovering about 500 barrels of drilling fluid, there were no indications of moveable hydrocarbons at the well, which lies just west of its producing Ungani oil field.

“Fluid influx during swabbing suggests that the well has developed porosity and permeability,” Buru said in a statement.

Buru was trading 12.5 per cent lower at 31.5 cents each, at 9:45am.

Ungani, which officially opened in July, and the Praslin 1 well are owned by a 50:50 joint venture between Buru and Mitsubishi Corporation.

“This is obviously a disappointing result, but the extension of the Ungani dolomite with well-developed reservoir characteristics some 15 kilometres along trend is encouraging,” Buru chairman Eric Streitberg said.

“We will now have a close look at the data to try and determine why the well did not have any movable oil in the reservoir.

“Our second well on the Ungani trend, Victory 1, is progressing well and we would hope to see some results from that well in the next week.”

The company will suspend the Praslin 1 well for further evaluation, and will possibly find use for it as a water injection point.

It follows news last week that Quadrant Energy had withdrawn from exploration permits in the Canning Basin which it held a stake in with Buru and Mitsubishi, after drilling several exploration wells which were deemed non-commercial, and were plugged and abandoned.