Successful Griffin Field

Broken Hill Proprietary Co Ld
21 June 2000

Date         21 June 2000
Number       63/00


BHP ANNOUNCES SUCCESSFUL WELL IN THE GRIFFIN FIELD

The Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited (BHP) today announced that it had
encountered a significant oil column in the Griffin 8 well offshore Western
Australia. The results will enable BHP to book additional reserves at Griffin
and significantly increase short term production, thereby delivering high
margin production revenues.

Griffin 8, drilled as part of an infill drilling program in the Griffin area,
was drilled to a total vertical depth of 2813 meters subsea and encountered an
oil column in the Zeepaard formation which was significantly greater than
predicted.  Wireline logging data and pressure testing confirmed a gross oil
column of around 63 meters.  After casing and completing, the well flowed at a
stabilised flow rate in excess of 8000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) although
the true potential was not realised because of equipment limitations on the
rig.

The Griffin Venture, a floating production, storage and offloading facility is
located in production license WA-10-L in 150 meters of water some 70km off the
coast of Western Australia.  Production commenced in 1994 from the Griffin,
Chinook and Scindian oilfields and surpassed the 100 million barrel cumulative
production milestone last year. The production rate is currently averaging
36,000 bopd gross (16,000 bopd net to BHP).

Participants are BHP (operator) 45%, Mobil/Exxon 35% and Inpex Alpha Ltd 20%.

Griffin is currently one of BHP Petroleum's highest margin producing
properties delivering over A$11 per barrel of oil equivalent at current oil
prices. The Griffin infill program is part of BHP's brownfields activity,
designed to extend and enhance the value of existing assets by capturing near
term incremental production.

In this context two infill wells Scindian 3 & Griffin 8 have now been
completed in the Scindian and Zeepaard reservoirs, respectively. Scindian 3
found an as predicted 26m oil column in the Scindian reservoir. This well was
completed and tested at a final rate of 6370stb/d. 

Both wells are targeted to come on production in July once tie-ins to the
Griffin Venture have been completed. The initial incremental production from
these wells is expected to exceed 20,000 bopd which will raise Griffin's
throughput to in excess of 50,000 bopd.

The importance of the Griffin 8 result suggests the presence of larger than
previously estimated in-place and recoverable volumes. These results will be
evaluated in combination with further data collection to re assess the
potential of the Griffin Field and the need for further development and/or
drilling. Additional reserves are expected to be booked in FY2001.


BHP's President and General Manager, Operations and Technology, Keith Hunter
said today: 

'The success of the infill program has confirmed that this field is larger
than expected.  This program is part of a broad strategy to increase the
shareholder value of our existing operations  and we are optimistic that
additional opportunities will be found'.


Contact:
MEDIA RELATIONS:                    INVESTOR RELATIONS:       
Dr Malcolm Garratt                  Dr Robert Porter
Group Manager External Affairs      Vice President Investor Relations
Ph:   [phone]               Ph:    [phone]
Mob:  [phone]               Mob:   [phone]