Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and its partners Wednesday announced a Miocene discovery in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM) at the Samurai prospect in Green Canyon Block 434. The discovery well is about 12 miles north of the Marco Polo platform.

The Houston-based producer, which operates the prospect and has a one-third interest, said it encountered more than 120 feet of net pay in several “high quality” sands. Murphy Oil Corp. and Samson Offshore Co. also each own a one-third interest in the Samurai prospect.

Samurai was drilled using the Belford Dolphin drillship, Anadarko said. The initial well is located in 3,400 feet of water and was drilled to a depth of about 31,700 feet.

“Samurai marks our third discovery in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico this year,” said Anadarko’s Bob Daniels, senior vice president, Worldwide Exploration. The initial well “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.”

Daniels said Anadarko’s continued drilling success “reinforces our expectations of discovering approximately 350 million 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” (see Daily GPI, March 11).

Anadarko also expects to have results in the coming weeks on the Vito prospect currently being drilled in the GOM, a Miocene test located in Mississippi Canyon Block 984. Anadarko operates the Vito exploration well and holds a 20% stake. However, drilling activities at the Turtle Lake Lower Tertiary prospect of the GOM, in which it holds a 20% stake, and the Gouda pre-salt prospect offshore Brazil, proved unsuccessful, the company said.

In addition, Anadarko has expanded its commodity derivative program. The company said it entered into additional fixed-price natural gas swaps for June, July and August and increased its 2010 derivative positions for both crude oil and gas through costless three-way collars.

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