Anadarko Boosts Production with Discoveries in Texas & Louisiana

Anadarko

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation has made significant natural gas discoveries in two new areas in East Texas and North Louisiana and is continuing to expand the limits of its Bossier play with exploration and development successes.

"Our strategy for 2002 is to focus on exploration, and we have been very successful at that," said John Seitz, Anadarko President and CEO. "Anadarko's 2002 drilling program in the onshore U.S. and offshore Gulf of Mexico, when combined with our excellent results this winter in Canada, puts us on track to achieve a 5 percent increase in production for 2003."

Anadarko has made a significant natural gas discovery in its Bossier play with the Gregory A-1 well in Anderson County, about 12 miles northeast of the main productive fairway. The well was drilled to a total depth of more than 17,500 feet and encountered 241 feet of net natural gas pay in multiple sands. The well was completed in the lowermost York sand interval and initially flowed at a rate of 8 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) into a sales pipeline. Anadarko holds a 100 percent interest in the well and has exploration rights for approximately 14,000 net acres in the area surrounding the discovery.

"We will be drilling three stepout confirmation wells to this discovery soon and expect development drilling will continue for some time," Seitz said. "As additional wells are drilled and we get more production data, we will develop a better assessment of the size of this new discovery. Available data suggest this field could open a new trend as significant and prolific as the Dew-Mimms area in Freestone County."

To date, Dew-Mimms has estimated recoverable gas reserves of more than 1 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) and is currently producing 136 MMcf/d (gross) from 277 wells. The Bossier play is about 130 miles north of Houston.

Throughout the main Bossier trend in East Texas, the company has six rigs drilling and holds 291,000 net acres. Total production volumes from the Bossier play in Texas have averaged around 275 MMcf/d (gross) in 2002.

West of the Vernon field in North Louisiana, Anadarko has drilled and completed a new natural gas discovery at its Ansley prospect. The Davis Brothers 11-1 well, drilled in Jackson Parish, logged 111 feet of pay in multiple sands and initially flowed to sales at 8 MMcf/d in January. It was drilled to a total depth of 16,000 feet. A follow-up well two miles to the west, the Barnett 9-1, recently logged 107 feet of apparent pay in multiple Lower Cotton Valley (Bossier) sands. This second well is currently being completed. Anadarko holds a 52.3 percent interest in the Davis Brothers 11-1 well (Ocean Energy, Inc. holds 44.6 percent; Devon Energy Corp. holds 3.1 percent). Anadarko holds a 100 percent interest in the Barnett 9-1 well.

The company has nearly 100 percent interest in the overall Ansley prospective area, with exploration rights on 26,000 net acres. Anadarko is drilling three additional wells in the Ansley area and plans continued drilling to develop this new area.

"Based on the well results, we expect to have an ongoing and active development drilling program around Ansley in North Louisiana. While it's premature to estimate field reserves, the available data suggest this area could be a significant discovery similar in size and potential to the Vernon field," Seitz said.

The Vernon field, about 80 miles east of Shreveport, La., has estimated recoverable reserves of 1 Tcf and is currently producing 92 MMcf/d from 69 wells. The company holds 116,000 net acres in North Louisiana.


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