BHP Billiton Ltd., Australia's biggest oil and gas producer, will increasingly consider acquisitions in petroleum to add to growth opportunities, reports Bloomberg News.

J. Michael Yeager, ceo of BHP's petroleum business, says that acquisitions may help petroleum expand to as much as 30% of the company in terms of value, after the planned purchase of Rio Tinto Group. That’s up from about 20% now. Organic growth will still be the main driver of gains in oil and gas, he said.

BHP, also the world's biggest mining company, is bolstering oil and gas in a bid to take advantage of record crude-oil prices and rising energy demand in emerging economies. Marius Kloppers, ceo, is also using the earnings potential of petroleum, BHP's highest-margin business, to bolster his case for the $178 billion hostile bid for Rio Tinto.

``BHP may be tempted to accelerate the search for acquisitions because they've got so much

BHP's $594 million purchase of a stake in the Genghis Khan oil project in the Gulf of Mexico in 2006 was the petroleum business's first acquisition for 10 years, Yeager said. Acquisitions ``will become a more and more important part of our business,'' he said.