Oil firm has one eye on the future

Floating in 8,000 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico, Anadarko’s Independence Hub continues to produce enough clean-burning natural gas each day to heat or cool more than five million homes, more than two years after initiating production. This first-of-its-kind facility continues to serve as an unmatched feat of collaboration, engineering and visionary courage. It’s also a perfect example of the commitment Anadarko has made to finding and developing the energy resources vital to the world’s health and welfare.

This year, Anadarko expects to spend between $4bn and $4.5bn in capital – more than $1bn above its total net income in 2008. During a year where most independent oil and natural gas companies significantly slashed their budgets, Anadarko maintained its commitment to exploration and the development its three international mega-projects.

“We’re continuing to invest in exploration to capitalise on the tremendous opportunities we have in our portfolio,” Anadarko Chairman and CEO James Hackett said. “We have financial flexibility as the result of maintaining a healthy balance sheet and prudently managing our capital spending during times of higher commodity prices. Following the unprecedented simultaneous acquisitions of two peer companies in 2006, we built a high-graded portfolio of opportunities through the acquisitions and subsequent divestitures.”

Anadarko’s exploration programme has uncovered two of the world’s largest deepwater discoveries during each of the last two years. The first discovery was made offshore Ghana at the Jubilee field in 2007. Since that time, Anadarko and its partners have drilled six additional successful wells offshore Ghana, and Anadarko has significantly expanded its acreage position to more than eight million gross acres along the Cretaceous trend offshore Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire.

In 2008, Anadarko became the first foreign operator to make a deepwater pre∞salt discovery offshore Brazil at the Wahoo prospect. The company plans to drill another exploration well on the same block later this year and conduct multiple drillstem tests to gather additional data and information on the area.

In addition, Anadarko has announced four oil discoveries in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico in 2009. Several of the discoveries are near existing infrastructure, enhancing the company’s development options following additional
appraisal drilling later this year and into 2010.

“While our exploration programme has had an excellent run of success, we’ve also continued to keep a focus on increasing production in our existing fields and moving forward with the development of our mega∞projects offshore Ghana, in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico and in Algeria,” added Hackett. “Even though we anticipate spending between 12 to 25 percent less capital in 2009, we still expect to be able to grow our sales volumes by two to four percent from a base production of 206 million barrels of oil equivalent. This is a great example of Anadarko’s commitment to delivering on our near-term goals, while continuing our work to position the company for top-tier performance in the future.”

“Our world is going to continue to need increasing amounts of energy. It is fundamental to human existence, and it’s important that we continue to invest in finding and developing additional resources,” continued Hackett. “Technology continues to advance, creating the potential to recover resources from tighter formations and underneath deeper water than previously thought possible. Independence Hub may have been the first of its kind; however, with access, innovation and investment, our industry can reach even
greater heights in the future.”

Further information: www.anadarko.com