Shares of Edinburgh-based oil and gas company Cairn Energy fell about 4% on Tuesday after it said it failed to find hydrocarbons at the Chimera well east of Shetland it had hoped would yield 154 million barrels of oil equivalent.

In a stock exchange statement, Cairn said: “Cairn, operator of UKCS licence P2312, has completed drilling of wildcat well 03/17a-3, known as Chimera.

“The objective of the well was to prove hydrocarbons in Paleocene Heimdal Sandstones within the Lista Formation. 

“The well is dry.

“The well was drilled to a vertical depth of 1,830 metres (m) below the sea surface and was terminated in the Lista Formation in the Paleocene. 

“The well will now be permanently plugged and abandoned.

“The well was drilled approximately 40 kilometres (km) north of the Kraken field, 140km east of Lerwick, and 400km north of Aberdeen.

“Water depth at the site is 135m.

“Nautical Petroleum (a fully owned subsidiary of Cairn) was awarded a 100% operated interest in the licence in the UK 29th Offshore Licensing Round in 2017. 

“Cairn subsequently farmed out a 40% non-operated interest to Suncor Energy UK Limited in 2018, and a further 15% non-operated interest to DNO North Sea (U.K.) Limited in 2019.

“Well 03/17a-3 was drilled by the Stena Don mobile offshore drilling unit.”