Upstream RELIABILITY

High operating reliability, which is central to Marathon's ability to grow production profitably, is paying off for Upstream. Results in 2009 showed a direct linkage between this key aspect of operational excellence and increased production and revenues. Dramatic reliability improvements and subsequent increased uptime in main operated assets boosted production more than 4.6 mmboe net compared to 2008.

Marathon's Equatorial Guinea LNG facility operated at 95 percent reliability in 2009, compared to 92 percent in the prior year. Higher reliability, coupled with innovative debottlenecking, increased production to 3.9 million metric tonnes of LNG in 2009. Marathon operated the Alba Field and Alba liquefied petroleum gas plant at 98 percent reliability, up from 93 percent in 2008, resulting in a nearly 5 percent increase in liquids and natural gas production year-over-year.

In the Alvheim/Vilje Development Area offshore Norway, overall reliability has exceeded plans since start-up in June 2008. Improved reliability, combined with optimization work, increased the throughput of the asset's floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) to 142 thousand barrels of oil per day (mbopd), up from the original design of 120 mbopd.

The Brae Complex is one of the most competitive mature assets in the U.K. North Sea. With investments in reliability improvements and other strategies, the Company has extended the expected life of Brae. Marathon achieved 93 percent reliability at Brae in 2009, compared to 85 percent in 2008.

Marathon also attained 98 percent reliability in its Gulf of Mexico and Alaska assets in 2009. In addition, Marathon is looking to improve reliability and increase production in its Canadian oil sands assets through cost-effective projects.