Shares in oil & gas explorer InfraStrata (LON:INFA) tanked this morning as it lost funding for its Woodburn Forest-1 well in Northern Ireland.
Larne Oil and Gas, which had acquired an interest in the project in 2014, has dropped out of the project after running into funding problems, InfraStrata revealed.
It means Infrastata’s stake in Woodburn Forest returns to 45%, rather than 27.5%, and it now needs to find £2.8mln to pay for the proposed drilling.
Woodburn Forest, if it still goes ahead, will be the first well in the area for several decades.
Andrew Hindle, InfraStrata’s chief executive, said: “Whilst we are disappointed that Larne will no longer be participating in the project, significant progress has been made in recent months towards drilling the first exploration well on the PL1/10 licence area in over 40 years.
“The company remains fully committed to the Woodburn Forest-1 well, and is actively pursuing a number of options to secure alternate funding for it to be drilled as soon as is practicable.”
All the regulatory approvals and permits, including the site lease, are now in place for drilling the Woodburn Forest-1 well this coming winter, the company said.
Shares dropped 29.4% to 1.5p.