By Samuel Indyk
Investing.com – Shares in Helium One (LON:HE1H) were trading almost 50% lower on Wednesday morning after the company announced it has completed drilling of the Tai-1A exploration well to a depth of 1121 metres at its 100% owned Rukwa Project in Tanzania.
Although the company said they were “encouraged” by the results, helium shows within the deeper and thicker sandstone units of the main Karoo reservoir were not able to be logged due to poor and deteriorating hole conditions.
Furthermore, petrophysical analysis indicated there was no free gas in the uppermost thinly bedded Karoo sands associated with helium shows.
“Frustratingly, due to poor and deteriorating hole conditions, including large washouts across much of the Karoo, we were not able to run wireline tools downhole beyond 882m and have subsequently not been able to log the main Karoo Formation,” said Helium One Chief Executive Officer David Minchin in a statement to the London Stock Exchange.
“Thinly-bedded sands in the uppermost Karoo that we were able to log have no indications of free gas.
“With deteriorating hole conditions and no free gas identified we could not drill stem test at Tai-1A leaving untested shows.”
The company will now evaluate the results of Tai-1A and incorporate that into ongoing exploration strategy which may include redrilling of Tai to test identified targets.
At 09:36BST, shares in Helium One were trading lower by 49% at 13.30 pence per share.