Marathon Petroleum Norge AS, announce today that the Alvheim project has submitted the plan for development and operation (PDO) of the Alvheim Field to the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy. Approval of the PDO is anticipated during the fourth quarter of this year and first Alvheim production is expected in early 2007. Marathon holds a 65 percent interest in Alvheim and serves as operator.

The Alvheim PDO outlines the companies' plans to develop the field using a floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) with subsea infrastructure consisting of five drill centers and associated flow lines. The FPSO will be a conversion of the multipurpose shuttle tanker Odin for which the Alvheim group signed a purchase and sale agreement with Statoil earlier this year.

The PDO also outlines transportation of produced oil by shuttle tanker, transportation of produced natural gas to the U.K. via existing infrastructure and re-injection of produced water.