Marathon Oil Results

US oil firm Marathon Oil Corp. provided information on market factors and operating conditions to date during the third quarter 2004 that could impact Marathon's quarterly and full year reported earnings.

Marathon estimates that oil and natural gas production for the third quarter will total approximately 304,000 barrels per day. The reduction from our previous guidance of 337,000 bpd is primarily due to the impact of hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico, later than anticipated complete ramp up of liquids production in Equatorial Guinea and other unplanned downtime during the quarter.
In the Gulf of Mexico, the Petronius production facility has been shut-in due to weather-related damage from Hurricane Ivan. Prior to Hurricane Ivan, Petronius was producing approximately 25,000 boepd net to Marathon. A timeline for resumption of production is difficult to predict as a full assessment is not yet complete.