Anadarko senior vice president of worldwide exploration Bob Daniels labelled the results from the Barquentine-2 well “exceptional”, adding that they had confirmed the strength and high permeability of the targeted reservoir.

The results also “indicated a low density of development wells may be sufficient to produce the reservoir,” he said.

“This is a very encouraging way to start our testing programme, which is an important component in the reserve certification process, as we focus on achieving final investment decision around the end of 2013,” he said.

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