Melbourne

Melbourne, Australia-based BHP Billiton said earlier in the week that it is investing $100 million in two limited liability companies that will transport natural gas and oil from the group’s recently sanctioned Mad Dog development and its Atlantis discovery, both in the ultra-deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM). The company said the pipelines are part of a new system being built in the southern Green Canyon area that also will transport oil and gas from the BP-operated Holstein development and potentially other fields.

PG&E Corp. has hired Credit Suisse First Boston (CS FirstBoston) of Melbourne, Australia, to evaluate various options forall of PG&E’s Australian assets, including a possible sale. Thecompany has made an about-face from aggressive investment inAustralia to continued expansion of its North American assets,particularly power generation in New England and pipeline andtrading operations in Texas. Over the past two years, PG&E haspurchased the 390-mile Queensland Gas Pipeline, running fromWalumbilla (near Roma) to Gladstone and Rockhampton, for US$138million, and planned huge expansion projects, including a proposedAU$30 million extension of the Queensland Pipeline and a AU$1billion, 994-mile gas pipeline project from the North West Shelf tothe South-West of the State. It also has built an activeQueensland-based energy trading business.