Just one more interesting point to add regarding BHP's culture....

Just one more interesting point to add regarding BHP's culture. Here's a bit of copy & paste from the Australian:

" The events of 2007 changed Rio, BHP and Andrew Mackenzie. In April 2007, Mackenzie's mate Clifford stepped down as Rio CEO because he wanted to leave Rio before it was too late to do something else...

...Back in Australia, when Marius Kloppers became chief in October 2007, BHP's plan to acquire Rio, including Alcan, was well advanced. Kloppers's brief was to execute it. But, before he did, former BHP chief executive Paul Anderson gave him some advice: "Your first job should be to select a potential successor.

So after Kloppers was anointed, he approached his friend at Rio, Andrew Mackenzie, probably pointing out that at BHP Mackenzie would be able to use his BP experience because BHP has both oil and minerals...

...If Clifford had stayed on at Rio it is unlikely Mackenzie would have gone to BHP. If Mackenzie has been made CEO of Rio instead of Albanese he would not have stopped the Alcan takeover mistake, but he would never have made the Riversdale mistake in Mozambique because Mackenzie has a detailed knowledge of coal geology.

Andrew Mackenzie is not the same as Leigh Clifford, but they share a belief that in the world ahead you will need to be an efficient producer of whatever goods and services you provide..."

There's much more to the article. Worth a read. As per the link: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/rios-folklore-may-hold-some-clues-for-the-mackenzie-era-at-bhp/story-fng7vg0p-1226586356366

So what we know is that Mackenzie has excellent understanding of oil, gas and coal. And that BHP is looking at Oz shale. The question is whether BHP will aim for the trifecta. If so, which basin has all of these?