Anadarko Petroleum Corporation Long Term Investor Investigation

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (Public, NYSE:APC) is named as one defendant in a recently filed class action lawsuit over alleged securities laws violations by Kerr-McGee Corp, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation and certain of Kerr-McGee and Tronox Inc’s executives. Subsequently an investigation on behalf of current long term shareholders of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (Public, NYSE:APC) has been announced.

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation has been accused of securities laws violation. An investor has filed a proposed securities class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf certain investors of Tronox, Inc. common stock (Class A or Class B) over alleged Federal Securities Laws violations by Kerr-McGee Corp, Anadarko Petroleum Corp and others. According to the complaint the plaintiff alleges that the defendants, including Anadarko Petroleum, violated the Exchange Act by failing to disclose November 28, 2005 and January 12, 2009 material adverse facts about Tronox, Inc’s true financial condition, business and prospects. Due to the bankruptcy filing, Tronox and the Tronox Entities are not names as defendants in the lawsuit.

Tronox was spun-off from Kerr-McGee Corp. in a two-step transaction. In November 2005, Kerr-McGee Corp. sold 17.5 million shares of Tronox Class A shares in an initial public offering for $14.00 per share generating proceeds for Kerr-McGee of $225 million. After the IPO, Kerr-McGee Corp. continued to hold 56.7% of Tronox’s outstanding common stock. In March 2006, Kerr-McGee distributed the balance of the shares that it owned as Class B shares to its shareholders as a dividend (the “Spin-Off”). According to the putative securities class action Kerr-McGee Corp. dumped hundreds of millions of dollars of environmental and tort liabilities on former subsidiary Tronox Inc. and concealed the scope of those liabilities before spinning off the now-bankrupt Tronox. When the market learned of the true facts about Tronox Inc, the price of Tronox stock declined precipitously, so the lawsuit.

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, located in The Woodlands, Texas, is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company with 2.28 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) of proved reserves as of December 31, 2008. Anadarko Petroleum Corp reported in 2007 Total Revenue of $15.892billion with a Net Income of $3.77billion and in 2008 Total Revenue of $15.723billion with a Net Income of $3.261billion. Shares of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation (Public, NYSE:APC) recently traded at $43.79 per share, down from a 52weekHigh of $70.41 per share and over $78 per share in 2008.