BICKLETON, Wash. -- After spending 16 months and millions of dollars punching more than two miles into the earth in search of natural gas, Delta Petroleum says it's disappointed with the results and is putting its plans for new wells on hold.

The Denver-based company said its exploratory gas well, about 12 miles southeast of Bickleton, showed "uneconomic" levels of natural gas and has ceased plans for more drilling nearby.


"I wish it was better news," Broc Richardson, vice president of corporate development and investor relations for Delta, said Monday.

"Plans for additional drilling activity scheduled for later this year and in 2010 have been curtailed pending a review of all completion and testing information," the company said in a news release Monday.

The company began drilling through the region's thick layer of basalt in May 2008, announcing plans to spend $18 million on the exploration. The company also partnered with Canadian giant Husky Energy Corp. to lease 850,000 acres in the Columbia River Basin. Some geologists have speculated the basin's thick layer of basalt could potentially sit atop one of the nation's largest reservoirs of natural gas.