Last-Chance Well Is a Gusher for Ailing Hondo Oil : Energy: Analysts say the strike in Colombia will save Robert O. Anderson’s troubled drilling company.

True to form, oil world legend Robert O. Anderson has once again been rescued by a wildcat well in an inhospitable part of the world.

Hondo Oil & Gas Co., a twilight-years venture of the former Arco chairman, Wednesday announced a “potentially significant” natural gas discovery at a deep exploration well in Colombia’s Magdalena Basin, 125 miles north of Bogota.

The well, more than two miles deep, was Hondo’s last hope as a company. Hondo, based in Roswell, N.M., has had to sell all other assets--and most of the well’s potential profits--to keep drilling.

“It’s a milestone in our turnaround,” said John J. Hoey, Hondo president and chief executive, who returned Wednesday from the drill site. “This is a vindication of Anderson’s belief in Colombia.”

Anderson, 77, a noted philanthropist, retired as chairman of Los Angeles-based Atlantic Richfield Co. in 1986. A consummate oil man, he also wrote a widely respected history of the petroleum industry and turned an Aspen think tank into a respected international policy institute.

The latest news could allow him to finish his career with another daring save, as he once made history by sticking it out on Alaska’s North Slope--until he found North America’s largest oil field, in Prudhoe Bay.

Greg L. McMichael, an analyst at Hanifen and Imhoff Inc., Denver-based institutional investment bankers, wonders whether Anderson would think of retiring.

“This is probably reinvigorating him,” McMichael said. “He’s probably ready to write another book now.” Anderson, who is Hondo’s chairman, was traveling on Wednesday and unavailable for comment.

Hoey said preliminary results showed promising amounts of natural gas and condensate, a light form of oil--in all, equal to 9,000 barrels a day of crude oil. That’s worth roughly $40 million to $50 million in revenue a year at today’s prices.

“People are happy in the States if they get 2,000 or 3,000 barrels a day,” Hoey noted.

Hondo’s drilling partner and the project operator, Houston-based Amoco Corp., also reported it was “very encouraged,” though a more precise estimate of the area’s reserves will require additional testing. Amoco has begun preparing to drill at a second well site.

Hondo spent $16 million selecting and exploring the site and for earlier drilling that was thwarted by mechanical problems and heavy rains.

Hondo is also $81 million in debt, mostly to its partner, Lonrho--a firm controlled by R.W. (Tiny) Rowland, a well-known British financier and wheeler-dealer.

The well project’s ownership is now 60% by Amoco, 30% by Hondo and 10% by Opon Development Co., a privately held oil and gas company. But with any large discovery, state-owned Ecopetrol will receive a 50% working interest, which would cut the partners’ interests in half.

McMichael said he remains skeptical that there is sufficient demand for the gas in the intended markets of Bogota and Medellin. Demand is still developing in those cities and in late August, British Petroleum announced a big gas discovery of its own in another part of Colombia.

“It’s probably five years out before both will be able to sell what these two finds could produce,” McMichael said.

Even so, the discovery saves Hondo, he said. “There’s perhaps a little more oil than people might have thought,” McMichael said, adding, “It’s typical for Amoco to be conservative about one well.”

The announcement followed weeks of rumors, which had already driven up Hondo’s stock price. Hondo shares went on a wild ride Wednesday in active American Stock Exchange trading, rising as high as $22 before closing down $1.125 at $18.75, near the low for the day. The stock had surged in recent months from a low of $5.75 earlier in the year.

“The rumors had taken the stock to $22, and now there’s nothing more (for traders) to look forward to,” McMichael said.

Amoco rose 75 cents to $58.625 on the New York Stock Exchange.