BHP Forecasts Higher Copper Output, Drop in Petroleum Production -- Commodity Comment
January 21 2020 - 8:07AM
Dow Jones News
By Joe Wallace
BHP forecast higher copper production and a fall in petroleum
output in the 2020 financial year, which ends in June, as it
published operational results for the past six months. Here are
some highlights.
Copper
BHP mined 885,000 metric tons of copper in the final six months
of 2019--the first half of its financial year--or 7% more than in
the same period of 2018. A 4% increase in copper production at
Escondida contributed to this rise, as improving maintenance at the
Chilean mine offset a decline in ore quality and stoppages caused
by widespread protests.
For the year as a whole, BHP said it will mine between 1.71
million and 1.82 million tons of copper, up from 1.69 million in
the 2019 financial year. The company expects to replace a refinery
crane at the Olympic Dam mine in southern Australia in the second
quarter of the 2020 calendar year.
Petroleum
Petroleum output fell 9% to 57 million barrels of oil equivalent
in the final six months of 2019, as Tropical Storm Barry knocked
crude-oil production in the Gulf of Mexico. Meanwhile natural-gas
production fell 8% to 189 billion cubic feet, partly reflecting a
fall in sales from Trinidad and Tobago. BHP expects to produce
around 110 million barrels of oil equivalent over the 2020
financial year, which would represent a fall from 121 million in
2019.
Iron Ore
BHP mined 121 million metric tons of iron ore in final six
months of 2019, 2% more than in the same period a year earlier. It
expects to produce between 242 million and 253 million tons of the
steel ingredient in the 2020 financial year as a whole.
BHP said work can resume at Samarco--the Brazilian mine where
two dams collapsed in 2015, killing 19 people--once the filtration
system is complete, the site has met safety requirements, and
Samarco's shareholders have approved the restart. It gave no
guidance as to when this would take place.
Write to Joe Wallace at joe.wallace@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 21, 2020 07:52 ET (12:52 GMT)
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