HARDMAN SIGNIFICANT OIL DISCOVERY - TIOF

Market is not best pleased!!
LONDON (Reuters) - Shares in Tullow Oil and Dana Petroleum fell sharply on Tuesday after the two energy explorers said a key Mauritanian well they had interests in had been plugged and abandoned.
Ireland's Tullow (TLW.L: Quote, Profile, Research) also said that two Angolan wells it was exploring were also abandoned.

Tullow said in a statement that the Faucon-1 exploration well at the Dana Petroleum-operated Block 1 offshore Mauritania was to be plugged and abandoned while an analysis of samples is fully completed.

Shares in Dana (DNX.L: Quote, Profile, Research) were 10.3 percent lower by 8:41 a.m. at 915 pence, while Tullow shares were 2 percent down at 262-1/2p after touching an earlier low of 257 pence.

Shares in Dana, Tullow and Australian partner Hardman Resources leapt earlier this month after the firms said the Mauritanian well had hit hydrocarbons.

Dana (DNX.L: Quote, Profile, Research) had said on its website at the time that the Faucon prospect, one of two identified in Block 1, had the potential to contain over one billion barrels of oil.

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