Anadarko strikes oil at Samurai prospect in Gulf of Mexico

Anadarko announced a Miocene discovery at the Samurai prospect in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico in Green Canyon block 432.
The discovery well, located approximately 12 miles north of the Marco Polo platform, encountered more than 120 feet of net oil pay in several high-quality sands.

"Samurai marks our third discovery in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico this year," said Bob Daniels, Anadarko Sr. Vice President, Worldwide Exploration.
"We are very pleased with the results of this initial well, which is located in close proximity to existing infrastructure, demonstrating the value of our hub-and-spoke approach. We look forward to drilling a sidetrack appraisal well within the next year. The continued success of our worldwide exploration program reinforces our expectations of discovering approximately 350 mm boe of net resources in 2009, which is a 50-% increase from the expectations we communicated at our investor conference in March of this year."

Samurai was drilled using the Belford Dolphin drillship. The well is located in approximately 3,400 feet of water and was drilled to a depth of about 31,700 feet. Anadarko operates the block with a 33.33-% working interest. Partners in the discovery include Murphy Oil and Samson Offshore, each with a 33.3-% working interest.
Anadarko is mobilizing the Belford Dolphin to West Africa to commence drilling on the company's Venus prospect in Block SL-6/07 (50-% working interest) offshore Sierra Leone followed by its South Grand Lahou prospect in Block 105 (55.88-% working interest) offshore Côte d'Ivoire. Both prospects have seismic signatures and characteristics similar to the world-class Jubilee field offshore Ghana. Following these drilling activities, Anadarko plans to move the drillship to begin the company's multi-well, deepwater drilling program offshore Mozambique.

Anadarko also is currently drilling the Vito prospect in the Gulf of Mexico, a Miocene test located in Mississippi Canyon block 984 and expects to have results in the coming weeks. Anadarko operates the Vito exploration well with a 20-% working interest. The company's activities at the Turtle Lake Lower-Tertiary prospect (20-% working interest) in the Gulf of Mexico and the Gouda pre-salt prospect (30-% working interest) offshore Brazil were unsuccessful.
In addition to the exploration activities described above, Anadarko announced that it has expanded its commodity derivative program. The company entered into additional fixed-price natural gas swaps for June, July and August 2009 and also increased its 2010 derivative positions for both crude oil and natural gas through costless, three-way collars.