BHP Billiton hunts for deepwater oil assets

MELBOURNE: BHP Billiton Ltd is looking to take advantage of a slump in oil prices to pick up assets where it can use its deepwater drilling expertise to boost growth as it slows expansion in onshore shale, its petroleum head said.

"We're not going to rely on the U.S. shale. We're going to have to expand back into the conventional business," BHP's petroleum president, Tim Cutt, told reporters on Monday on the sidelines of an Australian oil and gas conference.