






BHP's Melbourne office was unable to offer further context to the new legal claim on Tuesday, but reiterated previous declarations that the company honours the terms of its lease agreements, and prefers to work with landowners to resolve disagreements.





The new legal claims come as BHP's controversial $US20 billion punt on shale gas is looking better value than at any time over the past 17 months. The benchmark US gas price hit $US3.99 per unit on Tuesday, and has not breached $US4 since September 2011.

Importantly, the price is now higher than it was when BHP bought the Fayetteville shale from Chesapeake on February 22, 2011.

That $US4.75 billion acquisition was written down by $US2.84 billion in August 2012 on the back of a slump in the gas price, so a rising gas price raises the prospect BHP could reverse that impairment.