A joint venture led by US independent Murphy Oil has suffered an exploration setback with a dry well in Mexico’s deep-water Salina basin, and is assessing its impact on other leads and prospects in the same licence.

Murphy is the operator of Block 5 with a 40% interest and its partners are Petronas and Wintershall Dea, each with a 30% holding.

Murphy said in its latest quarterly results that the Tulum-1 exploration well had been completed but did not find commercial hydrocarbons.