Cairn Energy PLC said it has encountered hydrocarbon shows at two wells on the Atammik block off western Greenland and will continue operations through November.

The AT7-1 well in 909 m of water in the South Ungava area 202 km off Nuuk encountered a 113-m gross interval with 50 m of reservoir quality sands of Cretaceous age. Mud losses and poor hole conditions have hampered the full evaluation of this interval, which is of potential interest because of oil and gas shows. Part of the interval is behind casing.

Cairn is running intermediate logs across the cased and open hole sections before deepening the well to total depth. A cased-hole modular dynamic test program is planned to attempt to bring fluid samples to surface.

TheAT2-1 well, fifth in the 2011 program, is being logged after encountering minor hydrocarbon shows. Total depth is 4,847 m in Cretaceous sediments. The well is in 1,045 m of water 180 km off Nuuk and 46 km from AT7-1.