Anadarko and BP team up on deep water Gulf prospects

Steve Sutherlin

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and BP Exploration & Production Inc. have formed a joint venture to explore 95 BP South Auger area deep water blocks in the Garden Banks and Keathley Canyon areas of the Central Gulf of Mexico, the companies said last month. Most of the targets are deep, sub-salt objectives in water depths of 3,000 to 6,000 feet.

The joint venture agreement gives Anadarko the option to earn a 33 percent to 66 percent working interest in the blocks. Anadarko will fund the licensing and reprocessing of 3-D seismic data and pay a disproportionately larger share of the first four wells drilled.

“By partnering with BP in this area, we can leverage our sub-salt, shallow water expertise with BP’s deep water experience to provide a greater range of drilling discovery opportunities for both companies,” John Seitz, Anadarko president and CEO said in a statement. “We’re already participating in drilling a deepwater Gulf of Mexico exploration well, Blues Image, with BP under a separate agreement, and we have partnered with them in other exploration areas, such as the foothills of Alaska and offshore Nova Scotia.”

Also as part of the deal, BP has agreed to assign Anadarko its rights in eight blocks in the Green Canyon area near Anadarko’s Marco Polo discovery on Block 608.