Mining giant BHP Billiton
(ASX:BHP) has started production early at the Pyrenees oil and gas project offshore Western Australia.
The project involves 13 subsea wells to be developed in phases, as well as a floating production storage and offloading facility with capacity of about 96,000 barrels of oil, and gas reinjection capacity of 60 million cubic feet of gas per day.
First production was expected to have started by the end of the first half of calendar year 2010.
Costs for the Pyrenees development are about US$1.7 billion, of which BHP’s share is 71.4% or US$1.2 billion.
The other co-venturer in the project is Apache Corporation with a 28.6% interest.
BHP Billiton reported a profit of $7.243 billion for fiscal 2009.
