Greenland blow for Edinburgh-based Cairn Energy

Cairn has plugged and abandoned two of its wells in Greenland and suspended drilling at a third

Shares in the Edinburgh-based oil exploration firm Cairn Energy fell on Tuesday on negative news over its drilling operations in Greenland.

Cairn reported one of its wells did not achieve a commercial find while another failed to reach target depth before the end of the Arctic drilling season.

Its T4-1 well was plugged after failing to find significant hydrocarbons.

And it suspended its Alpha-1S1 well in Baffin Bay after it did not reach its planned geological depth.

A third well - T8-1 - was plugged and abandoned after the company encountered gas in thin sands in August.

Shares in Cairn fell by about 6% early on Tuesday after the update was released.

Cairn said it expected to write off costs of $185m (£116.5m) relating to the two plugged and abandoned wells.

The company revealed it could return to Alpha at some point in the future to deepen it or drill a sidetrack well.

In August, protesters from environmental group Greenpeace tried to stall the drilling of the Alpha well by suspending themselves from the rig.

They were objecting to oil exploration in the Arctic territory where they say an oil leak would be difficult to cap.