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Sydney: BHP Billiton Ltd., Australia's biggest oil and gas producer, said crude oil and condensates output increased 54 per cent in the fourth quarter, buoyed by the start-up of fields in the Gulf of Mexico and Australia.
Production jumped to 17.6 million barrels in the three months ended June 30, up from 11.4 million a year earlier, Melbourne-based BHP said yesterday in a statement to the Australian stock exchange. The increase drove a 20 per cent gain in total oil and gas output in the quarter.
BHP, also the world's biggest mining company, started up the Genghis Khan and Atlantis South oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico and the Stybarrow field off northwest Australia between October and December last year, boosting crude output as prices advanced. The start-ups contributed to a record annual output of oil and gas of 129.5 million barrels, up 13 per cent.
"The conveyor belt of projects right across BHP's business units and particularly in petroleum is bearing fruit," said Gavin Wendt, senior resources analyst at Fat Prophets Funds Management in Sydney. "It's strong production just at the right time."
BHP also had record quarterly output for iron ore, alumina, copper and manganese ore. Crude-oil prices reached a record $147.27 a barrel on July 11 in New York.
BHP fell 32 cents, or 0.8 per cent, to A$38.68 in Sydney. BHP has declined 3.6 per cent this year, compared with a 19 per cent slump in the benchmark S&P/ASX200 Index.
Record performance
"Newly commissioned petroleum projects in fiscally stable regimes contributed to a record performance," BHP said in the statement. "Ramp-up of production from these projects and future growth options will continue to increase the weighting of high-margin liquids in our portfolio mix at a time of historically high oil prices."
BHP reiterated a forecast of 10 per cent compound annual growth in oil and gas output through to the 2011 financial year. It started up the delayed Neptune petroleum project in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this month. Six of seven wells at Neptune have been completed and the project is ramping up toward full output, BHP said yesterday.
The North West Shelf venture's Angel natural gas project, due to start up at the end of 2008, is running ahead of schedule and budget, BHP said yesterday in a separate statement on exploration and development activities.
The venture's liquefied natural gas expansion is on schedule and budget, it said. BHP has a one-sixth share of the venture.
BHP's 44 per cent-owned Shenzi oil and gas project in the Gulf of Mexico is on schedule to start production in mid-2009, while the Pyrenees project off northwest Australia is due to begin output in the first half of calendar 2010. Those ventures will be followed by the start-up of the Kipper gas project off Australia's southeastern coast in 2011 and the North West Shelf venture's North Rankin B project the next year.
BHP said it found hydrocarbons at the Thebe-2 appraisal well off northwest Australia. The Thebe discovery, drilled last year, was the company's largest find in the past five years, J. Michael Yeager, chief executive officer of the petroleum business, said in May.
Condensate is a light oil produced in association with natural gas.
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