Marathon receives approval for Angola block 31

Marathon Oil Corporation, an integrated international energy company engaged in exploration and production, announces that its subsidiary, Marathon International Petroleum Angola Block 31 Limited, and its co-venturers have received approval from Sociedade Nacional de Combustiveis de Angola - Sonangol E.P. to proceed with the first deepwater oil development project on Angola Block 31, comprised of the Plutao, Saturno, Venus and Marte (PSVM) fields.

PSVM will be the first of multiple developments anticipated in Block 31. Located in the northeast sector of the block, about 250 miles northwest of Luanda, Angola, in a water depth of approximately 6,500 feet, PSVM will utilize a floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. Key contracts are ready to be awarded and construction work is expected to begin later this year. Peak gross production of about 150,000 barrels per day is targeted in 2012. A total of 48 production, gas and water injection plus infill wells are planned.

David E. Roberts, Jr., Marathon’s executive vice president of Upstream, said that the development of PSVM is an important step in advancing Angola as a new core area of operations for Marathon.

As the first in an anticipated series of deepwater development projects on Block 31, and potentially on Block 32, PSVM is part of Marathon’s strong upstream portfolio of opportunities that form the basis for our defined production growth through 2012 and beyond, as we continue to convert Marathon’s significant discovered resource base to proved reserves and production, concluded Mr. Roberts.