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The developments will provide the impetus behind a push for 50% growth in annual output from the current flat spot around 120 million barrels of oil equivalent to more than 180 million boe by 2006-07.
BHP is looking at the Gulf of Mexico to counter the sharp decline in output from the division's former flagship, its half-share of the ExxonMobil- managed partnership in Bass Strait's Gippsland Basin, which is currently at about 12% per annum.
In a bid to shore up production from the region for the next decade the Bass Strait partnership will drill the Whiptail and Moonfish oil exploration wells later this year.
Apart from the known Gulf commitments to the Mad Dog and Atlantis fields, the company is looking to begin production from the Neptune discovery in mid-2007, with the structurally complex Shenzi discovery to follow.
Locally, BHP is banking on developments of the Stybarrow oil field with Woodside and the Ravensworth/Crosby fields with Apache, both off WA, as replacements.
