Since the weekend, wireline logs and sidewall cores have confirmed the well, which was drilled from 1548m to a total depth of 1906m, had not encountered significant hydrocarbon shows in the Birkhead, Hutton or Poolowanna objectives.

In a report last week, the company announced that the well had also failed to encounter shows in the Namur Sandstone at a depth of 1331m.

Once Snowden-1 is plugged and abandoned, the Century 3 drilling rig will move to the Somerton-1 well location within that permit, Cooper said.

Beach Petroleum is operator and holds a 75% interest in Snowden-1, while Cooper owns the remaining stake.