MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands' new oil partner: global leader in resources

BHP Billiton which this week announced it had acquired an interest in 14 exploration and production licenses offshore the Falkland Islands is a leading global leader in the diversified resources industry with an annual turnover of 47.5 billion US dollars in fiscal 2007.

Formed from a merger between BHP and Billiton the corporation has some 39,000 employees working in more than 100 operations in 25 countries with leader or near leader world positions in major commodity businesses: aluminum, energy coal and metallurgical coal, copper, manganese, iron ore, uranium, nickel, silver and titanium minerals, plus substantial interests in oil, gas, liquefied natural gas and diamonds. According to the BHP Billiton home page the corporation's business model is a diversified portfolio of high quality assets which provides more stable cash flows and greater capacity to drive growth than the traditional resource cyclicals. In 2007 the turnover was 47.5 billion US dollars, underlying earnings before interest and tax of 20.1 billion, attributable profit (excluding exceptional items) of 13.7 billion and net operating cash flow of 15.6 billion. As at 16 August 2007 BHP Billiton's market capitalization was 140.4 billion US dollars. BHP Billiton was created through the Dual Listed Companies (DLC) merger of BHP Limited (now BHP Billiton Limited) and Billiton Plc (now BHP Billiton Plc), which was concluded on 29 June 2001. The two continue to exist as separate companies, but operate on a combined basis as BHP Billiton. The headquarters of BHP Billiton Limited, and the global headquarters of the combined BHP Billiton Group, are located in Melbourne, Australia. BHP Billiton Plc is located in London, United Kingdom. Both companies have identical boards of directors and are run by a unified management teams. Shareholders in each company have equivalent economic and voting rights in the BHP Billiton Group as a whole. In addition to headquarters in Melbourne and London, BHP Billiton also has corporate centres in Johannesburg, South Africa and Houston, USA, where BHP Billiton Petroleum is based. The oil and gas exploration and production sector has major producing assets in Algeria, Australia, Pakistan, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom and United States of America (Gulf of Mexico). Exploration areas also include Malaysia, Namibia and Colombia. In the 12-month period ending 30 June 2007, Billiton Petroleum production averaged 318,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day, or 116 million boe for the year plus proven oil reserves equivalent to 1.353 billion barrels. BHP Billiton Petroleum has an annual turnover of 5.9 billion US dollars and approximately 1.300 employees.