NorthAmOil: ExxonMobil finds no hydrocarbons in highly touted Persephone well off Newfoundland

A remote exploration well off Newfoundland that had excited industry observers has no hydrocarbons, says ExxonMobil Canada.

Spokesperson Shelley Sullivan told CBC News that the company’s Persephone C-54 exploration well "showed no evidence of commercial hydrocarbons".

That’s although Upstream Online had previously reported that the area where the wildcat well was drilled could hold as much as 3bn barrels of crude.

Sullivan said that the wildcat well was drilled to a depth of around 3,000 metres as planned by the Stena DrillMax drillship.

Persephone is in the Orphan Basin north of the Flemish Pass Basin, where Equinor had been considering developing Canada’s first deepwater operation, Bay du Nord. The plans have been put on hold for about three years.

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