Located just north of the Scarborough and Jupiter gas fields, Thebe has been seen by some analysts as a likely contributor to BHP Billiton's proposed Pilbara LNG project.

BHP Billiton Petroleum chief executive Michael Yeager said at the 2008 APPEA Conference that Thebe had 2-3 trillion cubic feet of gas and was the biggest discovery the company had made in five years.

Yeager said the company was still looking at development options for the Scarborough field, which unlike Thebe is held in a 50:50 partnership with ExxonMobil.

Meanwhile, Yeager said he remains hopeful the company will start up its Neptune oil field in the Gulf of Mexico by the second quarter of this year.

An unspecified "anomaly" discovered on the hull of the 50,000 barrels per day Neptune oil platform had led the company to say last month that the project would miss its planned first quarter start up.

BHP is also in the process of hiring a seismic contractor to start seismic work at its Malaysian exploration acreage off Sabah, east Malaysia in June or July this year.

"It has billion dollar discoveries all around it," Yeager said.

"It borders on Brunei, and although it is new acreage for us that we captured last year, we have been studying this area for about 10 years. It is highly, highly prospective."