BHP To Spend $900M On Oil, Gas Exploration

BHP Billiton

, the world's largest mining company, said it plans to spend $900 million on oil and natural gas exploration through year ending in June 2011, a record sum most of which BHP expects to spend in the second-half of the year. BHP said it spent $74 million on oil and gas exploration activities in the third quarter as it boosted output of the fuels by 3%. BHP's output for the year that ended June 30 rose 15 percent to 158.6 million barrels and expects 2011 output to be inline with that number, Bloomberg News reported. BHP, Australia's third-largest oil producer, is also active in the Gulf of Mexico where its operations were hampered by the Obama Administration's moratorium on deepwater drilling.