BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), Australia’s largest oil and gas producer, said full-year petroleum earnings rose 38 percent, driven by higher prices and the fourth consecutive increase in annual output. The oil and gas unit’s underlying earnings before interest and tax were $6.33 billion in the 12 months ended June 30, compared with $4.57 billion a year earlier, the Melbourne-based company said today in a statement. That compares with a Credit Suisse Group AG estimate of $6.26 billion. Petroleum Chief Executive Officer, J. Michael Yeager, has led a drive into U.S. shale gas this year, agreeing to buy Petrohawk Energy Corp. for about $12.1 billion and paying $4.75 billion for assets from Chesapeake Energy Corp. Full-year oil and gas sales climbed 22 percent to $10.74 billion. “The growth potential of the petroleum business has been significantly enhanced by the acquisition of onshore U.S. shale gas resources,” BHP said in the statement. Full-year petroleum output increased to 159.4 million barrels of oil equivalent from 158.6 million barrels a year ago, helped by the purchase of Chesapeake’s Fayetteville shale assets, the company said last month. The company reiterated in July that it expects oil and gas production to decline in the 2012 financial year, excluding the Chesapeake acquisition, as permitting delays in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico following the disaster at BP Plc’s Macondo well disrupt the drilling of production wells. To contact the reporter on this story: James Paton in Sydney jpaton4@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Amit Prakash at aprakash1@bloomberg.net.

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