Oil and gas producer Tullow Oil Plc said it had plugged and abandoned a well in the Norwegian North Sea after it failed to find any hydrocarbons.

The company said it did not encounter hydrocarbons in the Lupus exploration well, located 35 kilometres southeast of the Oseberg South field in the North Sea.

It was the first well in production licence PL 507, Tullow said on Monday.

Tullow reported a $415 million pretax write-off in net exploration in the first half of 2014 due to dry holes drilled in Mauritania, Ethiopia and Norway over the past 6 months and various licence cancellations.

Tullow's partner Det norske said in late May that the company had drilled a dry well in the Gotama prospect in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, where Tullow has an 80 percent stake.

Tullow is now counting on new drilling projects planned in Kenya and Ethiopia for this year and next to improve its exploration performance.

Tullow Oil Norge AS is the operator of production licence PL 507 with a 60 percent equity stake and a 40 percent paying interest. The other partners are Explora Petroleum, Ithaca Energy and North Energy.

Shares in Tullow fell as much as 0.9 percent in early trading.

(By Roshni Menon)