The company revealed it could return to Alpha at some point in the future to deepen it or drill a sidetrack well.

BBC: Greenland blow for Edinburgh-based Cairn Energy

He insists that in the push to drill the well quickly, the drillers lost circulation and got stuck, and had to regroup and drill a sidetrack well.

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New techniques have been developed to "sidetrack" a well when the pipe gets stuck or to control the pressures and temperatures found five miles down into the earth's crust with blow-out preventers and special purpose high-tech drilling rigs.

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