THE steep and prolonged fall in the price of oil has forced BHP Billiton into recording a record company loss for Australia of $7.8 billion for the first half of the financial year. The loss - which forced BHP to slash its dividend from US62c to US16c - was caused mainly by writing down the value of US oil interests.
BHP chief executive Andrew Mackenzie announced a restructure with Olympic Dam to be under a Melbourne unit covering all Australian mines.
Previously, it reported to Santiago, Chile.PAGE 28: END OF BIG DIVIDEND