Anadarko Negotiating With Exxon for U.S. Gulf Project

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC), the third- largest U.S. independent oil and natural-gas producer by market value, is in negotiations to bring Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) into its deep-water Phobos project in the Gulf of Mexico.

Exxon may cover Anadarko’s costs for the project’s first exploration well, John Colglazier, vice president of investor relations and communications at Anadarko, said during a Global Hunter Securities LLC conference webcast today. The Woodlands, Texas-based Anadarko would reduce its stake to 30 percent and remain operator under the potential arrangement, he said.

Anadarko has a 50 percent working interest in Phobos along with Plains Exploration & Production Co., John Christiansen, an Anadarko spokesman, said in a telephone interview today. Plains expects a resource potential of 306 million barrels of oil equivalent from Phobos, it said in slides at the Global Hunter conference.

Patrick McGinn, an Exxon spokesman, declined to comment, saying in an e-mail that the company doesn’t discuss potential business plans.

ConocoPhillips and Apache Corp. are the largest U.S. independent oil and gas producers by market value. Independent oil producers don’t own refineries.

To contact the reporter on this story: Edward Klump in Houston at eklump@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Susan Warren at susanwarren@bloomberg.net