BHP finance chief bullish on US as shale brings industrial revival
THE CHIEF financial officer of BHP Billiton has said he is confident of a “real” US economic recovery, backing up the mining giant’s decision to invest in what he called the country’s “transformational” shale market.
“US unemployment is coming down steadily, consumer confidence is up and consumption is up,” Graham Kerr told reporters last week.
“The recovery is real and could even lead to a surprise upside.”
The FTSE 100 firm has increased its spending outside of the mining sector in recent years and moved heavily into US shale in 2011, buying the Fayetteville assets from energy group Chesapeake and months later Petrohawk Energy.
BHP expects its US shale business to become a major cash-flow generator by the end of the decade.
Kerr said that while the US shale market was “still in the early stages” it had been “transformational” for the country and that BHP Billiton is “very excited by the industrialisation opportunities”. But the firm is not looking at the UK’s nascent shale gas market. “We have got our hands full at the moment,” said Kerr.