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Aug 26 (Reuters) - Britain's Hardy Oil and Gas Plc said it had plugged and
abandoned exploratory well GS01-S1 in India as no hydrocarbons were found,
sending shares in the oil explorer down almost 13 percent on Tuesday.
However, Chief Executive Sastry Karra said GS-01 continued to be an
important part of its exploration portfolio in India.
"We look forward to completing our exploration programme and the appraisal
of the existing Dhirubhai 33 discovery on the GS-01 block," he said in a
statement.
Hardy also reported net profit of $6.2 million for the six months to June
30, 2008, up from $1.9 million last year.
It was helped by an exceptional gain of $9.0 million from the sale of 5.06
million shares in Hindustan Oil Exploration Co Ltd (HOEC).
Hardy's pretax profit for the period rose to $9.73 million from $2.89
million.
The company made two gas discoveries -- Dhirubhai 39 and Dhirubhai 41 -- on
the D3 block in the KG Basin, "significantly" de-risking some of the prospects
within the block.
Hardy said it had scheduled up to 14 wells for drilling through to the end
of 2009, and it expected the exploration drilling programme for D9 block to
start this year.
Shares of Hardy were down 4.5 percent at 442.75 pence at 0855 GMT, after
earlier falling 12.6 percent to 405 pence.
(Reporting by Kumar Alagappan in Bangalore; editing by Sue Thomas) ($1=.5404
Pound) Keywords: HARDYOIL/
tf.TFN-Europe_newsdesk@thomsonreuters.com
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