BHP sees India growth and petroleum projects on budget

BHP Billiton, the world's biggest mining company, pointed on Friday to huge opportunities for growth in India, and said nine projects due for completion this year would meet budgets. BHP, which posted a jump in annual profits this week on strong minerals sales and earmarked $20 billion (10 billion pounds) in new projects, also said it was unfazed by short-term market volatility. The miner said growth in volumes to India was outstripping China and it was selling more products there than it was in China six years earlier. It said India would drive growth for its energy businesses. Chief Executive-elect Marius Kloppers pointed to potential opportunities in iron ore and bauxite in India if the Indian government eased regulations restricting the resources it is willing to allocate to those projects. "The access to resources or types of businesses we want to run in areas where they are very well endowed -- bauxite and iron ore, those opportunities have not yet materialised for companies like us," he told reporters at a media briefing in Melbourne. He said BHP was not talking to India about uranium sales. BHP Chief Executive Chip Goodyear, who steps down in October, said nine projects due to be completed in the next 12 months were expected to be completed on budget unless there were any unexpected events such as a hurricane. "We currently would expect to hit those budgets even though you see inflationary pressures continue," Goodyear told reporters. BHP said Wednesday near-term commodity prices were expected to remain high, if more volatile, and forecast big volume growth in petroleum, base metals, iron ore and stainless steel. It said its customers did not expect a global credit squeeze to have a big impact on demand for raw materials, particularly in China and India.