A $40 million drilling operation off the coast of Portland, off south-west Victoria, will be abandoned because no gas has been found there.
Beach Petroleum had estimated about a trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas was buried there, but it failed to find a gas reserve.
The drill site will be plugged and the drill rig will be sent back to Singapore.
Beach Petroleum's exploration manager, Neil Gibbins, says it is disappointing.
"We believed that there might have been about a TCF of gas in the region but the well was drilled to about 3,600 metres and didn't encounter any gas, so it was decided to abandon the well," he said.
"Yes it is a bit disappointing, certainly for the region we were very hopeful of finding a large resource there, but unfortunately that hasn't proven to be the case."
Tags: oil-and-gas, ballarat-3350, portland-3305
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