BHP Monitoring Impact of Gulf of Mexico Six-Month Oil Drilling Suspension

BHP Billiton Ltd., Australia’s largest oil and gas producer, said a moratorium on deep-water drilling in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico in response to the BP Plc spill and aging fields limited gains in fourth-quarter output.

Drilling at the Atlantis and Shenzi fields in the Gulf stopped during the quarter ended June 30, the Melbourne-based company said in a statement today to the Australian stock exchange. BHP said it continues to monitor the impact of the suspension, imposed after the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

Oil and gas production rose 8 percent to 40.8 million barrels of oil equivalent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier on gains at the Pyrenees project off Western Australia and the Shenzi field in the Gulf, BHP said. Full-year petroleum output increased 15 percent to 158.6 million barrels.

BHP said its oil and gas unit, led by J. Michael Yeager, delivered a third consecutive annual production record. “This strong performance was partially offset by natural field decline and the suspension of drilling activities in the Gulf of Mexico,” the company said in its statement.

BHP, also the world’s largest mining company, boosted petroleum exploration spending for the full year to $817 million, the company said in a separate statement today.

To contact the reporter on this story: James Paton in Sydney at jpaton4@bloomberg.net

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