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BHP Billiton to Drill Offshore South Africa's West Coast Next Year
South Africa News 10/24/2006
BHP Billiton (BHP), the world's largest resources company by market capitalization, next year will begin drilling for oil and gas off South Africa's west coast, corporate media relations director Illtud Harri said.

Harri said Billiton owns two offshore licenses on South Africa's west coast, one evaluating the deep water oil potential and another, with Sasol Petroleum International www.sasol.com , evaluating shallow water gas potential.

"We are optimistic that we will be ready to drill a well next year if everything goes according to plan," Harri said, adding that BHP is in talks with the South African government over the terms of the project.

"We have offshore exploration blocks in South Africa at 50,000 square kilometers," Harri said. "Evaluations will take place to decide whether the final product will be for domestic use or for export."

Harri said a number of changes have taken place in the group's petroleum division, now headed by Mike Yeager, including a move from geographical organization to functional organization, which will see petroleum split into exploration, development, production and marketing, as the division looks to regain its credibility, after recent cost overruns and delays.

"This is true of our Antlantis project in the Gulf of Mexico, which was affected by a bad hurricane season last year," said Harri.

Harri said BHP Billiton, the world's largest diversified resources company, needs to fund about $4.2 billion worth of new projects over the next few years, and has a number of others in the pipeline, including an exploration blocks in neighboring Namibia, at 29,000 square kilometers.