Venture Production, the North Sea gas developer on the end of a £1.3 billion hostile takeover from British Gas group Centrica, admitted today one of its blockbuster hopes will not happen.

The news is a huge embarrassment to Venture's chief executive Mike Wagstaff, who last week was bullishly talking up prospects for its Andrea gas exploration well in the southern North Sea.

Today Venture admitted the gas it has found at Andrea is “tight”, that it will not flow and that the well has been suspended. It is a major setback to Venture as it had been hoped in the City it would report a find of 44 million barrels, making it potentially the biggest discovery in the explorer's 240 million barrels-strong portfolio of reserves.

Such a find could have been an important weapon in its attempts to rebuff the 845p-a-share takeover from Centrica, which has already built up a 29% stake in Venture.

Last week Wagstaff said: “The Andrea well is one of the top opportunities in our 2009/10 drilling programme and the information so far is extremely encouraging.” Today he admitted: “The Andrea result is disappointing.”