Permian Basin Assets Put Mining Giant BHP in Wall Street Activist Fund's Crosshairs

The usual suspects have planted their flags along the dusty byways of the Permian Basin, declaring where they've staked claims. There are names like Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Pioneer Natural Resources Co. And, on signs fronting a barbed-wire fence, BHP Billiton Ltd.For the world's largest mining company, the heart of the U.S. shale boom in West Texas might seem to be strange territory, a very long way from the iron-ore deposits of Australia or the copper mines of Chile's Atacama desert. But BHP actually has been in the oil business for years, with operations stretching from Texas to the North Sea. Its U.S. assets alone are so valuable that activist investor Paul Singer urged the company to spin them off — a suggestion BHP rejected Monday, setting the stage for a tussle with the billionaire.For Chief Executive Officer Andrew Mackenzie, a Scottish-born geologist who spent two decades at BP Plc and joined the miner in 2008, there's a lot at stake. For one thing, oil is one of the two commodities where he sees the most potential. "Our preference is still, medium-to-long-term, to grow in oil and copper," he told investors in February. And oil accounted for about 20 percent of BHP's underlying profit in the six months ending in December.  Continue reading...