Genel Energy has thrown in the towel on its endeavour to find oil in Maltese waters. The company's CEO, former British Petroleum CEO Tony Hayward, had once forecast a one in five chance of finding oil in Maltese waters.

The news comes after the company disclosed this week that it expects to record a non-cash exploration write-off of approximately US$480 million in respect of drilling offshore Malta, Angola and Morocco.

Questioned about the Maltese portion of the write-off, a company spokesperson informed The Malta Independent on Sunday this week that the company will not disclose a precise split in the write-off figure. 

It is believed, however, that the company had sunk over €30 million in its exploration of the Hagar Qim well off Malta - located 150 kilometres south of its namesake megalithic temples.

Moreover, the spokesperson also confirmed that, "Genel has no further plans to explore in Maltese waters at this time."

The company had plugged the Hagar Qim exploratory well back in July ahead of schedule after Phoenicia Energy Company abandoned exploratory drilling after no indication of hydrocarbons had been found.

Phoenicia Energy Company is the operator of the Area 4 licence and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Genel Energy plc, the majority shareholder in the consortium holding the licence for exploratory drilling in the area.

At the time, it was believed that Phoenicia Energy Company had been seeking a six-month extension to evaluate the well's results and to decide whether to enter into the second exploration phase. But Genel's statement to this newspaper appears to have plugged that prospect as well.