Shares in New Zealand Oil & Gas have plunged after the company revealed it had failed to find any significant hydrocarbon shows in a well it was drilling off the north west coast of Australia.
The company began drilling at Ironbark - a well located in the North Carnarvon Basin at the end of October.
It was placed on a trading halt this morning pending an update on the drilling.
In an update to the sharemarket at 2pm NZOG said it had intersected its primary target interval at a depth of 5275m and, as planned, continued drilling to intersect the remaining sands.
"Ironbark was a world scale prospect in a highly prospective address, and it needed drilling. We got an answer, but it was not the one we wanted."
Operations to plug and abandon the well were now beginning. It would take some time once the drilling was complete to retrieve and analyse the data and understand the implications of it.
Jeffries acknowledged operator BP for its drilling of the well as well as its joint venture partners and shareholders for their continuing support.
NZOG had a 15 per cent stake in the prospect with BP the largest of the participants with a 42.5 per cent stake follow by Cue Exploration (21.5 per cent) and Beach Energy (21 per cent).
NZOG is majority-owned by the oil and gas arm of Ofer Global. It owns 4 per cent of the Kupe gas field and has interests in the Maari oil field and Indonesia's Sampang field through its controlling interest in Cue Energy Resources.
NZOG shares have had a roller coaster ride over the last year hitting a low of 43c per share on March 24 when much of the world was going into lockdowns caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The shares had recovered since then to trade around 74c before being hit by the Ironbark news.
