BHP to open data rooms for US shale fields, deals may be announced before year-end

Mining giant BHP will open the data rooms for its onshore US assets next month, the group said on Tuesday, as it confirmed that deals may be announced before the end of this year. Under pressure from activist investors, including Elliott Management, to get out of the shale business that it acquired in 2011, BHP reported that it had started marketing each of the fields and that the data room for the Fayetteville field had been opened.