Marathon Makes Gas Discovery Offshore Equatorial Guinea

Marathon Oil  12-16-2004

Marathon Oil, www.marathon.com  through its wholly-owned subsidiary Marathon E.G. Production Limited, announced a natural gas and condensate discovery on the Alba Block (Sub Area B) offshore Equatorial Guinea.

The Gardenia discovery well is located approximately 11 miles southwest of the Alba Field in 320 feet of water. The well was drilled to a total measured depth of 15,175 feet and encountered 150 feet of net gas/condensate pay in the Upper Isongo section, which is also productive in the Alba Field. A 60 foot net pay interval was tested at a stabilized rate of 18.6 million cubic feet of gas and 1,300 barrels of condensate per day on a 40/64" choke.

"The Gardenia discovery continues Marathon's evaluation of the additional resource potential in the Alba field area," said Philip Behrman, Marathon senior vice president of Worldwide Exploration. "A potential development scenario includes production through the Alba field infrastructure and the future liquefied natural gas facility on Bioko Island."

Marathon holds a 63 percent interest in Sub Area B and serves as operator. Samedan of North Africa Inc., a subsidiary of Noble Energy, Inc. www.nobleenergy.com   owns 34 percent interest in the block and Compania Nacional de Petroleos de Guinea Ecuatorial (GEPetrol), the national oil company of Equatorial Guinea, holds the remaining 3 percent interest.