Co-venturer Tap Oil said the well had found “reasonable hydrocarbons” in the same reservoir section of the Calypso-Legendre Formation made in the Amulet oil field discovery 4km to the northeast.

But the company said the preliminary analysis suggested that if oil was present in this section it was low-saturation and not suitable for production.

As a result, it said Totem-1 was being plugged and abandoned.

Participants in the well are operator Santos (33.4%), Kufpec Australia (33.4%), Tap (Shelfal) (23.2%) and Nippon Oil Exploration (Dampier) (10%).