Shale fail: BHP to return $10.4bn to shareholders after selling US shale assets to BP
BHP has revealed plans to return $10.4bn (£8.1bn) to shareholders after the sale of its US shale assets to BP.
The deal – BP's largest acquisition in two decades – was confirmed on Wednesday after being agreed in July.
Anglo-Australian miner BHP announced its arrival on the shale market in 2011 buying fields in Texas and Louisiana.
But last year chief executive Andrew Mackenzie, who was not in charge when the purchases were made, admitted the company had made a mistake.
He said: “The shale acquisitions were poorly timed and we paid too much and the rapid pace of early development was not optimal.”
On Thursday Mackenzie said the company would honour its commitment to return all the proceeds of its onshore US assets back to shareholders.
The company will return the sum through an off-market buyback and a special dividend, payable in January 2019.
On completing the $10.5bn deal, BP said it would add 190,000 barrels of oil per day to its production line.
It said the “liquid-rich” regions of the Permian and Eagle Ford basins in Texas and the Haynesville natural gas basin in East Texas and Louisiana were “world-class additions” to its portfolio and would boost pre-tax cash flow by $1bn in 2021.
BHP shares rose 1.5 per cent in early trading on Thursday.