Mining giant BHP Billiton Ltd. (ASX: BHP) has announced dividends to be distributed to shareholders amounting to 45.935919 Australian cents.

BHP said in a disclosure to the Australian Stock Exchange that in terms of British pence and New Zealand cents would be based on the foreign currency exchange rates on the Record Date, 11 March 2011, and for South African cents the last date to trade on the JSE Limited, being 4 March 2011.

Currency conversions to be followed:

Australian cents 1.0013955= 45.935919

British pence 1.60169= 28.719665

New Zealand cents 0.736425 =62.463930

South African cents1 6.891175 =316.994050

The dividend will be paid on Thursday, 31 March 201, BHP further said.

Meantime, the company also said in a separate disclosure that it obtained the second deep water permit to drill in the United States coast since the BP oil spill paralysed all other activities. This allows BP to resume its drilling at the Shenzi field in the Gulf of
Mexico.

A related report of Bloomberg News has confirmed this. Kelly Quirke, a spokeswoman for Melbourne-based BHP, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday: "We are very pleased to be resuming work."

The company joins Noble Energy Inc as the only drillers given clearance to resume drilling operations in the area, the report indicated.

The resumption of oil drilling in the area since the BP oil spill is will hopefully lower speculation in the fuel market triggering further price movements due to the lingering Middle East crisis.