The company’s major asset is the Moranbah project in Queensland – Australia’s largest single CSM gas project – which it shares in equal partnership with CH4.

Moranbah supplies gas for Entertrade's Townsville power station, which powers BHP's Yabulu nickel refinery.

The newspaper said the company was also seeking buyers for its offshore CSM assets, believed to be in Illinois, US, and in China.

But The Australian said a BHP spokesperson declined to confirm the rumours that its CSM assets were for sale.

Australia has 3600 petajoules of proven and probable reserves of coalbed methane, equivalent to about 600 million barrels of oil.