[R]3:00AM New York, 7:00PM Sydney – BHP surged to a record high on a speculation of investment from China. Woodside completes the acquisition of North West Shelf interest.

Market Sentiments

ASX 200 index gained 1% or 60 to close at 5,872.70. The Preliminary market turnover was 1.93 billion shares worth $5.39 billion with 669 stocks up, 563 down and 334 unchanged. The most traded stock was Junior explorer Lakes Oil with 174.7 million shares worth $1.17 million.

Market Driver

The world''s biggest mining company, BHP Billiton share reached record high with a rise of 6.1% on the rumors that Chinese entity was interested in acquiring a stake in it.

The market was awash with speculation that Chinese state-owned Aluminum Corp. of China known as Chinalco was planning a share raid on BHP as it did on Rio Tinto Group.

In February, Chinalco bought a 9% stake in BHP''s takeover target, Rio Tinto as it try to influence in deciding how much iron ore and at what price it gets.

BHP Chief Executive Officer Marius Kloppers told reporters that he had largely anticipated the move by the Chinese investors. BHP''s share also rose as much as 4.5% in London while Rio Tinto was up 4.6% in Australia and 5.5% in London at the close.

Gainers and losers

Of the ASX 200 index stocks, AED Oil Ltd led the gainers with a rise of 18% followed by increases in BHP Billiton Ltd of 6.1%, in Ramsay Health of 6%, in ABC Learning of 5.4% and in Valad Property of 5.2%.

Of the ASX 200 index stocks, AWB Ltd led the decliners with a fall of 8.1% followed by losses in APA Group of 6.7%, in Centro Properties of 5.3%, in West Australian Newspaper of 4.3% and in St Barbara Ltd of 3.8%.

Woodside completes acquisition of the North West Shelf oil interests

Australia''s second-largest oil and gas producer, Woodside today announced that it had completed the acquisition of Shell Development (Australia) Proprietary Limited''s North West Shelf oil interests.

The company said in a statement that the final adjusted purchase price as at completion was $277.7 million and it would treat production attributable to the acquired Shell NWSV oil interests as accruing to the company from 1 May 2008.

Prior to this transaction, as of the end of the year 2007, the company had a 16.67% interest in the Cossack, Wanaea, Lambert and Hermes oil fields covered proved plus probable reserves of 19.6 million barrels of oil equivalent and an additional 7.2 million barrels of contingent resources.

It also had a 33.33% interest in Egret covered contingent resources of 4.1 million barrels of oil equivalent. The sale doubles Woodside''s participating interest in the Cossack, Wanaea, Lambert and Hermes fields to 33.33%.

The company''s interests in the Egret oil discovery area and remaining active oil exploration portfolio within a tieback distance to the Cossack Pioneer increases to 50%.

""At this point in time Woodside maintains its recent 2008 production guidance and will provide an update when the company announces its half year results in August,"" it said.

Voelte, chief executive officer of the company said, “The existing taxation arrangements had underpinned more than $25 billion in investment in the North West Shelf Venture, providing billions of dollars in revenues to the Western Australian and Commonwealth governments over the past 24 years.
The North West Shelf Venture is a major contributor to the nation''s gross domestic product, and any changes to the fiscal regimes under which existing major projects such as this operate should be considered extremely carefully."" The government has recently imposed an additional excite tax on the condensate processing.

Woodside share was up 0.1%.