"For all intents and purposes (the merger) is dead for now," said BHPB petroleum head Mr Phillip Aiken.

While the idea of merging the energy giants has been around for at least five years, the talks took on a sense of urgency during Royal Dutch/Shell's $10 billion bid for Woodside earlier this year. Mr Aiken said the talks involving BHPB, Woodside and Royal Dutch/Shell "couldn't find enough that would add value" and made it clear his group would not go ahead with the merger unless there were advantages to BHPB shareholders.

Despite the failure of the talks, BHPB said it expects to boost oil production by 38 per cent in the next five years. The company hopes to sign a contract for developing the Foororzan field in Iran by early 2002 and approve the 'Mad Dog' field in the Gulf of Mexico within two weeks. In addition, its field off Trinidad may hold 400 million barrels of oil.

"That's a pretty bullish forecast," Mr Aiken told investors and analysts at a briefing in Sydney. He forecasted oil output to rise to 180 million barrels a year by end of 2006 from 131 million barrels at the end of June 2001.