The energy agency said Monday that no commercial amounts of oil and gas were found after three months of test drilling at a site in the Sea of Japan.
Several companies conducted the test drilling, the first initiated by the government in nine years, at a site that was hoped would be one of the largest oil and gas deposits in the country.
JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corp. and Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp., known as JOGMEC, started the drilling in April about 30 km southwest of Sado Island in Niigata Prefecture at the request of the Natural Resources and Energy Agency.
Working until Saturday, the companies drilled a well about 2,000 meters below the seabed.