BHP prepares to slash and burn

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The BHP Q4 production is out and was unremarkable in volume terms, a littler short of expectations:

  • Group production increased by 9% during the December 2014 half year with records achieved for eight operations and five commodities. Production guidance remains unchanged and we are on track to deliver Group production growth of 16% over the two years to the end of the 2015 financial year.
  • Metallurgical coal production increased by 21% to 26 Mt in the December 2014 half year as Queensland Coal and Illawarra Coal both achieved record half year volumes.
  • Western Australia Iron Ore production increased by 15% to a record of 124 Mt (100% basis) in the December 2014 half year as the ramp-up of Jimblebar continued and we improved the availability, utilisation and rate of our integrated supply chain.
  • Petroleum production increased by 9% to a record 131 MMboe in the December 2014 half year supported by a 71% increase in Onshore US liquids volumes to 24.4 MMboe.
  • Copper production(1) decreased by 2% to 813 kt as strong underlying operating performance across the business was offset by lower grades at Antamina.
  • Record manganese ore and alumina production was underpinned by strong performances at both Hotazel and the Alumar refinery.

BHP Billiton Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Mackenzie, said: “Our operational performance over the last six months has been strong. We are reducing costs and improving both operating and capital productivity across the Group faster than originally planned. These improvements will help mitigate some of the impact of lower commodity prices and we remain alert to opportunities to further increase free cash flow.

“In Petroleum, we have moved quickly in response to lower prices and will reduce the number of rigs we operate in our Onshore US business by approximately 40 per cent by the end of this financial year. The revised drilling program will benefit from significant improvements in drilling and completions efficiency. Our ongoing shale investment program will remain focused on our liquids-rich Black Hawk acreage. However, we will keep this activity under review and make further changes if we believe deferring development will create more value than near-term production.

“We continue to believe that our planned demerger will help support further improvements in operating performance in both the core BHP Billiton and South32 assets. Within BHP Billiton, it would allow us to identify and deploy best practice across our assets more quickly and simplify our organisation to reduce overheads. We are making good progress towards securing the approvals we require to put the proposal to a shareholder vote in May and remain on track to complete the process before the end of the financial year.”

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In short, ready yourself for the great slash and burn.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.