BHP Group Regulatory News (BHP)

BHP OPERATIONAL REVIEWFOR THE NINE MONTHS ENDED 31 MARCH 2019

BHP Chief Executive Officer, Andrew Mackenzie, said: "During the March 2019 quarter, we had a strong operational performance despite weather impacts across Australia and Chile. We approved Atlantis Phase 3 and now have five major projects under development. Those projects, our work on transformation, technology and culture, and our successful petroleum and copper exploration and appraisal programs will grow value and returns for years to come."

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Summary

Production and guidance are summarised below.

(i) Other copper comprises Pampa Norte, Olympic Dam and Antamina.

(ii) Increase in BHP's share of volumes reflects the expiry of the Wheelarra Joint Venture sublease in March 2018, with control of the sublease area reverted to the Jimblebar Joint Venture, which is accounted for on a consolidated basis with minority interest adjustments.

During the March 2019 quarter, the BHP Board approved US$696 million (BHP share) in capital expenditure for the Atlantis Phase 3 project in the US Gulf of Mexico.

At the end of March 2019, BHP had five major projects under development in petroleum, copper, iron ore and potash, with a combined budget of US$11.1 billion over the life of the projects.

Petroleum

Petroleum - Total petroleum production was flat at 92 MMboe. Guidance for the 2019 financial year remains unchanged at between 113 and 118 MMboe, with volumes expected to be towards the upper end of the guidance range.

Crude oil, condensate and natural gas liquids production decreased by five per cent to 42 MMboe due to natural field decline across the portfolio and a 70 day planned dry dock maintenance program at Pyrenees completed during the September 2018 quarter. This decline was partially offset by higher uptimes at our Gulf of Mexico assets and stronger field performance in Atlantis.

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Natural gas production increased by four per cent to 299 bcf, reflecting increased tax barrels at Trinidad and Tobago in accordance with the terms of our Production Sharing Contract and higher uptime at North West Shelf. This was partially offset by planned maintenance at Trinidad and Tobago in the December 2018 quarter, the impact of Tropical Cyclone Veronica and natural field decline across the portfolio.

On 13 February 2019, the BHP Board approved the development of the Atlantis Phase 3 project in the US Gulf of Mexico. The project includes a subsea tie back of eight new production wells and is expected to increase production by an estimated 38 Mboe/d (100 per cent basis) at its peak. This decision follows sanction by BP (the operator).

The Bass Strait West Barracouta project is tracking to plan and study work continues on the Ruby project in Trinidad and Tobago with an investment decision expected during the 2019 calendar year.

Exploration and appraisal wells drilled during the March 2019 quarter are summarised below.

In Mexico, we spud the Trion-2DEL appraisal well in November 2018 and encountered oil in line with expectations. This was followed by a downdip sidetrack which encountered oil and water, as predicted, further appraising the field and delineating the resource. Following the recent encouraging results in the Trion block, an additional appraisal well (3DEL), to further delineate the scale and characterisation of the resource, has been approved and is expected to be drilled in the second half of the 2019 calendar year.

The Deepwater Invictus rig mobilised to Trinidad and Tobago for Phase 3 of our deepwater drilling campaign. This includes three wells testing three prospects in our Northern licences around the Bongos discovery. Bélé-1, the first of these wells, was spud on 2 March 2019 and encountered hydrocarbons. Drilling is still in progress and our assessment is ongoing.

In the US Gulf of Mexico, following the Samurai-2 discovery in 2018, Murphy, the Operator, has commenced pre-FEED activities. In the Western US Gulf of Mexico, our Ocean Bottom Node(3) seismic acquisition survey and node recovery has been completed. This will be incorporated into our ongoing analysis which we will continue to progress over the next 24 months.

Petroleum exploration expenditure for the nine months ended March 2019 was US$438 million, of which US$215 million was expensed. A US$750 million exploration and appraisal program is being executed for the 2019 financial year.

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Copper

Copper - Total copper production decreased by three per cent to 1,245 kt. Guidance for the 2019 financial year remains unchanged at between 1,645 and 1,740 kt.

Escondida copper production decreased by six per cent to 848 kt as expected lower copper grades were partly offset by record concentrator throughput. Production guidance remains unchanged at between 1,120 and 1,180 kt for the 2019 financial year, with volumes expected to be towards the lower end of the range.

Pampa Norte copper production decreased by 11 per cent to 172 kt and reflects planned maintenance and a production outage at Spence following a fire at the electro-winning plant in September 2018, and the impact of heavy rainfall in northern Chile in February 2019 at both Spence and Cerro Colorado. This was partially offset by record ore milled at both operations after implementing maintenance improvement initiatives. Production guidance at Spence and Cerro Colorado remains unchanged for the 2019 financial year, at between 160 and 175 kt and 60 and 70 kt respectively.

Olympic Dam copper production increased by 22 per cent to 115 kt as a result of the major smelter maintenance campaign in the prior period, which was partially offset by an unplanned acid plant outage in August 2018. Following completion of the acid plant remediation works, surface operations ramped up between October 2018 and February 2019. Production guidance remains unchanged at between 170 and 180 kt for the 2019 financial year, with volumes expected to be towards the lower end of the guidance range.

Antamina copper production increased by five per cent to 110 kt due to higher head grades. Production guidance for the 2019 financial year remains unchanged at approximately 135 kt for copper and approximately 85 kt for zinc.

Iron Ore

Iron ore - Total iron ore production was broadly unchanged at 175 Mt (198 Mt on a 100 per cent basis). Production guidance for the 2019 financial year has been reduced to between 235 and 239 Mt, or 265 and 270 Mt on a 100 per cent basis, reflecting a 6 to 8 Mt impact from Tropical Cyclone Veronica. As a result, full year unit costs are now expected to be below US$15 per tonne, an increase from previous guidance of less than US$14 per tonne, due to the lower volumes, direct costs of remediation, increased demurrage, rehandle to manage stockyards and opportune maintenance at the mines during port downtime. In addition, private royalties are also expected to be higher as a function of higher iron ore prices.

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At WAIO, volumes reflected record production at Jimblebar and the impact from the Mt Whaleback fire in the prior period. This was offset by the impacts of planned maintenance in the September 2018 quarter, a train derailment on 5 November 2018 and Tropical Cyclone Veronica in March 2019. While our facilities did not sustain major damage as a result of the cyclone, the port ramp up was slowed by localised flooding, processing wet material and equipment assessments.

Mining and processing operations at Samarco remain suspended following the failure of the Fundão tailings dam and Santarém water dam on 5 November 2015.

Coal

Metallurgical coal - Metallurgical coal production was broadly flat at 31 Mt (54 Mt on a 100 per cent basis). Guidance for the 2019 financial year remains unchanged at between 43 and 46 Mt (75 and 81 Mt on a 100 per cent basis).

At Queensland Coal, increased yields at South Walker Creek and higher wash-plant throughput at Poitrel following the purchase of the Red Mountain processing facility supported record production at BMC. Despite record stripping, BMA's production decreased slightly due to the scheduled longwall move at Broadmeadow in the December 2018 quarter and unfavourable weather impacts in the March 2019 quarter.

On 27 March 2019, BMA completed the sale of the Gregory Crinum Mine to Sojitz Corporation.

Energy coal - Energy coal production was broadly flat at 20 Mt. Guidance for the 2019 financial year remains unchanged at approximately 28 to 29 Mt.

New South Wales Energy Coal production increased five per cent supported by record stripping performance. Production guidance remains unchanged at between 18 and 19 Mt for the 2019 financial year. However, following optimisation of the mine plan through the construction of Multiple Elevated Roadways (MERs) which will reduce future cycle times, the focus on higher quality products and challenges with labour hire attraction and retention, unit costs for New South Wales Energy Coal are now expected to be approximately US$51 per tonne, an increase from previous guidance of between US$43 and US$48 per tonne. Ongoing labour hire challenges are being addressed, including through the initial deployment of BHP Operations Services in the June 2019 quarter.

Cerrejón production decreased by eight per cent due to adverse weather and its impacts on mine sequencing. Production guidance remains unchanged at approximately 10 Mt for the 2019 financial year.

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Other

Nickel - Nickel West production decreased by 13 per cent to 59 kt as operations were suspended following a fire at the Kalgoorlie smelter in September 2018. The smelter returned to operation on 1 October 2018, with final repairs and ramp up completed in the March 2019 quarter. Production guidance for the 2019 financial year remains unchanged and is expected to be broadly in line with the 2018 financial year.

Minerals exploration expenditure for the nine months ended March 2019 was US$122 million, of which US$84 million was expensed. Greenfield minerals exploration is predominantly focused on advancing copper targets within Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Canada, South Australia and the South-West United States.

During March 2019, BHP signed a non-binding letter of intent with Luminex for an earn-in and joint venture agreement on Luminex's Tarqui 1 and 2 mining concessions in Ecuador. Negotiations to complete a binding agreement will be undertaken over the next two months.

On 15 April 2019, BHP secured a five per cent interest in Midland Exploration Inc., which has copper exploration tenements in Canada.

Following identification in November 2018 of a potential iron oxide, copper and gold (IOCG) mineralised system at Oak Dam, 65 kilometres to the south east of Olympic Dam, BHP has commenced a further drilling program to define the extent of mineralisation.

Variance analysis relates to the relative performance of BHP and/or its operations during the nine months ended March 2019 compared with the nine months ended March 2018, unless otherwise noted. Production volumes, sales volumes and capital and exploration expenditure from subsidiaries are reported on a 100 per cent basis; production and sales volumes from equity accounted investments and other operations are reported on a proportionate consolidation basis. Numbers presented may not add up precisely to the totals provided due to rounding. Copper equivalent production based on 2018 financial year average realised prices.

The following footnotes apply to this Operational Review:

(1) Excludes production from Onshore US.

(2) 2019 financial year unit cost guidance: Petroleum

(3) WGOM OBN 2018 Seismic Permit is OCS Permit T18-010.

The following abbreviations may have been used throughout this report: barrels (bbl); billion cubic feet (bcf); cost and freight (CFR); cost, insurance and freight (CIF); dry metric tonne unit (dmtu); free on board (FOB); grams per tonne (g/t); kilograms per tonne (kg/t); kilometre (km); metre (m); million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe); million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d); million tonnes (Mt); million tonnes per annum (Mtpa); ounces (oz); pounds (lb); thousand barrels of oil equivalent (Mboe); thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day (Mboe/d); thousand ounces (koz); thousand standard cubic feet (Mscf); thousand tonnes (kt); thousand tonnes per annum (ktpa); thousand tonnes per day (ktpd); tonnes (t); and wet metric tonnes (wmt).

In this release, the terms 'BHP', 'Group', 'BHP Group', 'we', 'us', 'our' and ourselves' are used to refer to BHP Group Limited, BHP Group plc and, except where the context otherwise requires, their respective subsidiaries as defined in note 27 'Subsidiaries' in section 5.1 of BHP's 30 June 2018 Annual Report and Form 20-F, unless stated otherwise. Notwithstanding that this release may include production, financial and other information from non-operated assets, non-operated assets are not included in the BHP Group and, as a result, statements regarding our operations, assets and values apply only to our operated assets unless stated otherwise.

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Production summary

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Production summary

(1) LPG and ethane are reported as natural gas liquids (NGL). Product-specific conversions are made and NGL is reported in barrels of oil equivalent (boe). Total boe conversions are based on 6 bcf of natural gas equals 1 MMboe.

(2) Metal production is reported on the basis of payable metal.

(3) Shown on a 100% basis. BHP interest in saleable production is 57.5%.

(4) Includes Cerro Colorado and Spence.

(5) Iron ore production is reported on a wet tonnes basis.

(6) Shown on a 100% basis. BHP interest in saleable production is 85%.

(7) Metallurgical coal production is reported on the basis of saleable product. Production figures include some thermal coal.

(8) Shown on a 100% basis. BHP interest in saleable production is 80%.

(9) Production restated to include other nickel by-products.

Throughout this report figures in italics indicate that this figure has been adjusted since it was previously reported.

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Production and sales report

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Production and sales report

(1) Total boe conversions are based on 6 bcf of natural gas equals 1 MMboe. Negative production figures represent finalisation adjustments.

(2) Other Australia includes Minerva and Macedon.

(3) Gulf of Mexico volumes are net of royalties.

(4) Other Americas includes Neptune, Genesis and Overriding Royalty Interest.

(5) BHP completed the sale of its interest in the Bruce and Keith oil and gas fields on 30 November 2018. The sale has an effective date of 1 January 2018.

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Production and sales report