Anadarko and El Paso Energy Partners Announce Joint Development for Marco Polo Deep Water Discovery.

Business/Energy Editors

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 4, 2001

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (NYSE:APC) and El Paso Energy Partners (NYSE:EPN) announced today an innovative arrangement to jointly develop Anadarko's Marco Polo discovery, using a floating production platform capable of accommodating production from multiple fields.

Marco Polo, Anadarko's first deep water development project, is located on Green Canyon Block 608 about 150 miles offshore Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico.

"This is a significant development milestone for Anadarko," said John Seitz, Anadarko President and Chief Operating Officer. "This joint arrangement with El Paso Energy Partners allows us to move forward with development of Marco Polo quickly and create a production hub to which other nearby discoveries can be tied. Additionally, Anadarko will benefit from EPN's experience in building deep water platforms."

Anadarko made the Marco Polo discovery in spring 2000 and has drilled a total of two wells and four sidetracks, which encountered between 90 and 360 feet of net oil and gas pay. Anadarko maintains 100 percent working interest in Marco Polo. Recently, the company acquired the rights to explore and develop eight blocks in the Green Canyon area adjacent to the Marco Polo discovery. Anadarko plans to drill up to five wells on the complex of 11 blocks in 2002.

Under the letter of intent, Anadarko and EPN have formed an integrated project team and expect to start awarding pipeline and platform construction contracts immediately. The definitive agreements should be finalized in early 2002. The companies expect to have the facilities completed and online in 2004.

The platform will be stationed in 4,300 feet of water and will function as a hub. EPN will own the platform with Cal Dive International, Inc. (Nasdaq:CDIS) and Anadarko will be the operator. Production capacity will be 100,000 barrels of oil per day and 250 million cubic feet of gas per day. Under the agreement, Anadarko will have firm capacity of 50,000 barrels of oil per day and 150 million cubic feet of gas per day. The remainder of the platform capacity will be available to Anadarko for additional production and/or to third parties that have fields developed in the area.

Oil and gas processed on the platform will be transported through new gathering pipelines owned by EPN to downstream markets. The oil will be transported through a new 34-mile, 14-inch pipeline and EPN's Allegheny oil pipeline to its 50-percent owned Ship Shoal 332 platform where onshore markets can be accessed via EPN's 36-percent owned Poseidon Oil Pipeline System. EPN intends to build a gas pipeline from the Marco Polo platform to a downstream point to be determined by Anadarko.

"We are very pleased to provide these midstream services to Anadarko, one of the premier exploration companies in the U.S.," said Robert G. Phillips, Chief Executive Officer of El Paso Energy Partners. "This arrangement with Anadarko leverages our deepwater platform business that started with the deployment of EPN's Prince Field tension leg platform and extends our oil and gas pipeline infrastructure into deeper water in the Green Canyon area. We believe the installation of the platform and pipeline to serve Anadarko's Marco Polo development will provide critical infrastructure and accelerate development of new oil and gas production in surrounding blocks in this active area of the deep water trend."

Anadarko currently holds 109 deep water leases in the Gulf of Mexico, where it is drilling several high potential deep water wildcat wells. Additionally, the company has a partnership with BP to explore 95 deep water blocks held by BP in the Garden Banks and Keathley Canyon areas of the Central Gulf of Mexico.

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation is one of the largest independent exploration and production companies in the world, with proved reserves of more than 2 billion barrels of oil equivalent and reported daily production of 558,000 barrels of oil equivalent in the third quarter of 2001. It is among the most active drillers in North America, with operations in Texas, Louisiana, the Mid-Continent and Rocky Mountain regions, Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico and Canada. Internationally, it is active in Algeria, Tunisia, West Africa, the Middle East, Venezuela, Georgia, the North Atlantic and Australia. For more information about Anadarko go to www.anadarko.com.

El Paso Energy Partners, L.P. is a publicly owned master limited partnership. The partnership owns and operates a diversified set of midstream assets including five offshore natural gas and oil pipelines and six production handling platforms located in the Gulf of Mexico, a strategically located salt dome storage facility with 7.2 billion cubic feet of current storage capacity in Mississippi, a 450-mile coal bed methane gathering system in Alabama, and more than 600 miles of natural gas liquids gathering and transportation pipelines and three fractionation plants located in south Texas, and a 700 Mdth/d cryogenic gas processing facility in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico. Visit El Paso Energy Partners on the Web at www.elpasopartners.com.

This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. Anadarko and El Paso Energy Partners believe that their expectations are based on reasonable assumptions. No assurance, however, can be given that these goals will be achieved. See Additional Factors Affecting Business in the Management's Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) included in the company's 2000 Annual Report on Form 10-K.