sEnergy, the Bermuda mutual insurance company for the energy sector, has announced a new member.

BHP Billiton Petroleum will join sEnergy effective July 1, 2003. The new member company is a significant oil and gas exploration and production company based in Houston, Texas.

sEnergy is the newest part of the Oil Group of Companies that provide property damage, business interruption, third party liability and D&O coverage for the energy, chemical utility and mining industries. It was established in May, 2002 when 12 major energy companies decided to seek an alternative to the commercial insurance market with its current high markets and shortages in capacity.

The founding shareholders/policyholders were Borealis (Denmark) CITGO Petroleum (Tulsa) Duke Energy (Charlotte) El Paso (Houston) Lyondell Chemical (Houston), NOVA Chemicals (Calgary) Petro-Canada (Calgary), Philips Petroleum (Bartlesville) Sasol (Johannesburg) Statoil (Norway) Tesoro Petroleum (San Antonio) and Valero Energy (San Antonio).

Rudd Marlow, senior vice president and chief operating officer of sEnergy said: "We are very pleased with the decision that BHP Billiton Petroleum has made to join sEnergy. The decision to participate in sEnergy by a company of this quality is further confirmation that the broad coverage and $200 million capacity offered by sEnergy is a significant resource for energy companies to use in the structuring of their insurance programmes."