update from georesources, page-6

From Footbridge

BHP to talk up US shale gas prospects
AFR, Page 21 (Mon 14 May 2012) by Angela Macdonald-Smith

BHP Petroleum boss Mike Yeager will look to showcase the diversity and flexibility of the company’s $US26.9 billion shale gas business in the US and its capacity to cope with slumping US gas prices amid mounting speculation the company faces an embarrassing write-down on at least part of the division. BHP’s shale gas assets comprise of the $US4.75 billion Fayetteville shale assets and the $US15.1 billion takeover of Petrohawk Energy. The slump of US gas prices have forced BHP to concentrate in areas such as Eagle Ford region and the Permian basin in Texas wherein shales contain a higher proportion of high value-liquids. BHP said last month that the Eagle Ford and Permian would represent the bulk of its onshore US petroleum business by the end of the year as it moves drilling rigs out of the dry gas basins of Fayetteville and Haynesville.