The resource giant will take equity ownership of two US pipeline companies set up to build pipelines that will link the deepwater Gulf of Mexico's Green Canyon, Mad Dog and Holstein development.
BHPB will acquire a 25 per cent share in the 28-inch Caesar oil pipeline and 22% interest in the Cleopatra gas pipeline. BHPB's shares of the capital cost will about $US100 million.
The pipelines with the Romanesque names will be about 192km long and will be the first of their size to be laid in water depths greater than 1500m in the Gulf of Mexico. The 'Caesar' pipeline will have a capacity of at least 450,000 barrels a day while 'Cleopatra' is designed to handle around 500 million cubic feet of gas a day.
Other partners in the pipeline are operators BP, Shell, Equilon Pipeline Company and Unocal.
