The Perth-based company yesterday said a liner was run and perforated and a short test carried out on the well.

“Although the well was swabbed, only a minor and slow pressure build-up was observed and a gas flow was not established,” Carpathian said.

“Because of the shallow depth of the well, damage to the formation, as a result of the drilling process and/or the cementing of the production string, seems the most likely cause of this result.”

The company said it would continue monitorIing pressure build-up, examine all possible causes for the result and consider how to remedy the damage.

Mo-1 Skotnice lies between the depleted Kremlin gas field to the north and the Priobor-Klokocov field to the south, which reportedly produced 23 billion cubic feet of gas between 1945 and 1984.

Carpathian said the Skotnice prospect has been defined by a detailed study of some 28 coal exploration holes, 0.5-1km apart. The targets are Tertiary sandstones in a potential trap at a depth of about 400m and sandstones in the Carboniferous section not far beneath.

The the Mo-1 Skotnice well is very close to and updip of a coal exploration hole from which a gas flow of about 2.8 million cubic feet per day was recorded in 1961, some two years after it had been drilled.

Carpathian is listed on both the Australian and London stock exchanges.