Anadarko, which has never been shy about wildcat drilling, used the Bolette Dolphin semi-submersible drilling rig to complete the Kronos-1 well, which sits in a frontier deepwater basin in the Fuerte Sur Block to a depth of 3720m in almost 1600m of water.
The well encountered a 40-70m net gas column and proved a working petroleum system in the Fuerte Sur area.
The well was drilled with Colombia's state-owned Ecopetrol, and adds to the emerging Colombain story with December's deepwater Orca-1 well in the of Tayrona block, drilled by Ecopetrol, Petrobras, Repsol and Statoil.
"These results are very important and confirm the potential of the Colombian Caribbean petroleum system in a vast area and are aligned with Ecopetrol´s new strategy, in which one of the key areas is the exploration on high potential marine basins," Ecopetrol president Juan Carlos Echeverry said.
The Kronos-1 well is still being deepened to test a secondary objective.
On release the rig will drill the Calasu prospect in the Fuerte Norte Block, some 150km to the northeast of Kronos.
Calasu is a large four-way structure on the north end of the Grand Fuerte complex.
Anadarko operates Kronos and Calasu with 50% working interest with 50% owned by Ecopetrol. Anadarko also owns the Grand Col area, where it is shooting 16,314sq.km survey.
In the US Anadarko has spudded its third appraisal well in at the Shenandoah field in the US Gulf of Mexico, and plans to commence drilling on an appraisal well to the previously announced Yeti discovery, which encountered more than 80m net oil pay.
Despite this good exploration news for Anadarko's exploration efforts, the company's quarterly report reflected a story similar to most operators, with net income down $US277 million ($A379 million) to $US61 million.
Market watchers expected worse, with the result being lifted by increased year-on-year oil sales volumes by 42,000 barrels of oil per day, adjusted for divestitures and asset sales of $US1.7 billion in the year to date.
That included more than 18,000bopd of higher-margin oil sales volumes above guidance, driven by continued improvements in productivity and ongoing operating efficiencies.
Full-year production is expected to be 14% higher at about 35,000bopd, although sadly that is into a low oil price environment.
Net cash flow from operating activities in the second quarter was $US1.243 billion, and discretionary cash flow from operations totalled $US1.373 billion
The company has also announced its Mozambique LNG project also continues to advance with the selection of a consortium consisting of CB&I, Chiyoda Corporation and Saipem for the initial development of the onshore LNG park.
The scope of the work includes two six million tonnes per annum LNG trains, up 20% on the original capacity expectations with no change to estimated costs.
