21st Jul 2020 05:45
(Alliance News) - BHP Group PLC on Tuesday said annual petroleum production was marginally short of guidance, with lower gas demand due to Covid-19, but it met its targets for iron ore and metallurgical coal among others.
As the company had to temporarily suspend operations at Antamina and Cerrejon during the year, production for both was below guidance although the two operations are now ramping back up.
Petroleum production for its financial year ended June 30 was 109 million barrels of oil equivalent, a 10% drop from 2019. Guidance was for the bottom end of between 110 million and 116 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Copper production was 2% ahead of 2019, at 1.7 million tonnes. The company placed its copper production guidance under review in April but managed to meet the pre-review level of between 1.7 million and 1.8 million tonnes.
Iron ore production was 248 million tonnes, up 4% from 2019 and within the target range of between 242 million and 253 million tonnes.
Metallurgical coal production was down 3% year-on-year but just met the target of between 42 million and 45 million tonnes.
Energy coal production fell 16% from 2019 to 23 million tonnes. Nickel production was down 8% at 80,000 tonnes.
For financial 2021, BHP is guiding for petroleum production of between 96 million and 102 million barrels of oil equivalent, copper production of between 1.5 million and 1.6 million tonnes, and iron ore production of between 244 million and 253 million tonnes. Its metallurgical coal forecast is for between 40 million and 44 million tonnes, with energy coal at between 22 million and 24 million tonnes. Nickel production is expected to be between 85,000 and 95,000 tonnes.
Chief Executive Mike Henry said: "Our diversified portfolio and high quality assets, together with our strong balance sheet, make us resilient to the ongoing uncertainty in the markets for our commodities. We expect to continue to generate solid cash flow through the cycle and we remain confident in the outlook for demand for our products over the medium to long-term. We continue to focus on becoming even safer, delivering exceptional operational performance, maintaining disciplined capital allocation, creating and securing more options in future facing commodities and building social value. We have learned new ways of working, both internally and with others, through the Covid-19 pandemic. We will seek to embed these in a way that helps to reinforce these priorities."
By Anna Farley; [email protected]
Copyright 2020 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
BHP Group