Tullow Oil fails to find more oil

London - British exploration company Tullow Oil on Tuesday revealed that it had failed to locate more oil off the coast of French Guiana.

"The Priodontes-1 well, offshore French Guiana, has now been drilled to a total depth of 6 318 metres in water depths of 1 750 metres," Tullow said in a statement.

"Having encountered no hydrocarbons in the main target reservoir, the well has been plugged and abandoned."

Tullow is part of a joint-venture exploration project involving Shell and Total that is searching for oil in deep waters off the French territory in South America.

While the venture has located some oil, Tullow's announcement on Tuesday deals a blow to hopes of finding a lot more crude that would benefit financially not only the companies but the territory as well.

"Although this well did not encounter significant hydrocarbons, we have added substantially to our knowledge of the formations in this frontier exploration area," said Angus McCoss, exploration director of Tullow Oil.

The exploration project is 27.5% controlled by Tullow Oil, 45% by Shell, 25% by Total and 2.5% by Northpet.