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Gold/Mining/Energy : Strictly: Drilling and oil-field services -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Ox who wrote (73938)	9/20/2000 11:57:13 AM
From: The Ox	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 95453

McMoRan Exploration Co. and Noble Affiliates, Inc. Announce Discovery At Vermilion Block 196 NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 20, 2000--McMoRan Exploration Co. (NYSE:MMR) and Noble Affiliates, Inc. (NYSE:NBL) today announced that the Vermilion Block 196 No. 2 exploratory well, the initial well drilled under their previously announced multi-well exploration alliance in the Gulf of Mexico, has encountered 70 feet of net hydrocarbon pay in 3 sands logged between measured depths of 13,160 and 14,350 feet. The well was drilled to a total depth of 14,798 feet and will be saved for future production. Based on initial well log analysis, the development of this discovery together with the drilling of an additional well to produce the reserves previously discovered by Shell Offshore Inc., the original lessee of the block, is expected to recover approximately 50 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalents, which was McMoRan's previously announced gross unrisked potential. Vermilion Block 196 is operated by McMoRan in an area where it controls 15,000 acres with a number of prospective exploration opportunities at deeper horizons, located in 115 feet of water, approximately 50 miles offshore Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. Working interests in Vermilion Block 196 are owned 47.5 percent by McMoRan, 25 percent by the Samedan unit of Noble Affiliates, 25 percent by another participant and 2.5 percent by an individual investor. Shell retains an 6.25 percent royalty interest in the block. McMoRan's net revenue interest in the block is approximately 34.2 percent. McMoRan's share of initial revenues from the No. 2 well will be approximately 54 percent because one working interest partner elected not to participate in the No. 2 exploratory well, and under a non-consent penalty clause that partner will receive no revenues from the No. 2 well until after 600 percent payout. Under the previously announced alliance with Halliburton Company, it has the right to participate in the discovery by paying 20 percent of the acquisition, exploration and development costs and receiving 20 percent of net revenues until payout, after which Halliburton receives 6 percent. After temporarily abandoning and saving the Vermilion 196 No. 2 well, the Marine 15 drilling rig will move to Vermilion Block 144 to drill the remaining approximate 3,000 feet of a McMoRan-operated exploratory test well there, temporarily suspended at a depth of 15,000 feet earlier this year. McMoRan and Noble own 71.3 percent and 25 percent working interests, respectively, in the Vermilion 144/145 prospect, located in 90 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 40 miles offshore Louisiana.