[dashster]

BHP Billiton is sounding decidedly downbeat

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')n post-results briefings this week, both chief executive Andrew Mackenzie and his Houston-based oil and gas boss Tim Cutt declared the US shale oil boom would be “short-lived”, something the mining and oil giant had not previously posited.

[dashster]

U.S. Oil Growth to Peak in Next Decade, Says BHP Executive

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')r. Cutt said the growth in U.S. supply would flatten in the next three to six months as other shale producers slow down their work.

“I think you’re going to see us and others slow down when the price is low and speed up when the price is up,” he said.

Mr. Cutt said some of its shale plays in the U.S. remained profitable, returning up to 20% margins, though those were lower than earlier profits.

[ROCKMAN]

“I think you’re going to see us and others slow down when the price is low and speed up when the price is up.” Makes you wonder how many $millions/yr he gets paid for such brilliant insights, doesn't it? Maybe next he’ll tell us the secret to making money in the stock market: buy low…sell high. LOL

Be prepared to hear a lot of odd statements from the oil patch corporate “leadership”: unable to admit the reality of the situation out loud they are still obligated to make comments.

[rockdoc123]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '�')��I think you’re going to see us and others slow down when the price is low and speed up when the price is up.” Makes you wonder how many $millions/yr he gets paid for such brilliant insights, doesn't it? Maybe next he’ll tell us the secret to making money in the stock market: buy low…sell high. LOL

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ROCKMAN', '�')��I think you’re going to see us and others slow down when the price is low and speed up when the price is up.” Makes you wonder how many $millions/yr he gets paid for such brilliant insights, doesn't it? Maybe next he’ll tell us the secret to making money in the stock market: buy low…sell high. LOL

Be prepared to hear a lot of odd statements from the oil patch corporate “leadership”: unable to admit the reality of the situation out loud they are still obligated to make comments.

[dashster]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '
')Doubly funny how the plight of the "poor" is then cast by the same far left as not enough incentive provided by the mean old job creators who expect actual value from the labor they employ. But of course, that gets glossed over as the key word of blame is always "greed".

[DesuMaiden]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('rockdoc123', '
')might have been a misquote but I suspect the point he is making is that the shale plays are somewhat unique in that once price rises you can accelerate development very quickly, much moreso than a lot of the conventional plays. They are more vulnerable to dropping price due to high costs but they are also able to recover very quickly when the price rises.

[Tanada]

Nice little report to fill your eager eyes with, if you like doomy stuff. More text and some nifty graphs at the link below the quote.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')HP Billiton Ltd. said it expects to take a writedown of $4.9 billion on the value of its U.S. shale assets due to the tumble in oil prices. Its next safeguard against the commodities collapse may be to abandon its decade-old pledge to maintain or raise its dividend. The stock slumped to the lowest in 10 years in London.

The Melbourne-based producer, the biggest overseas investor in U.S. shale, is cutting capital expenditure and seeking other savings as it grapples with the slide in prices of metals and energy, and the costs of November’s deadly dam breach at its iron ore venture in Brazil. Iron ore, the company’s top earner, has slipped more than three-quarters since its 2011 peak, while oil this month plunged below $30 a barrel for the first time in 12 years.

BHP’s post-tax charge against its U.S. onshore assets, acquired for $20 billion in 2011, is part of a rolling response to the slump in raw materials, which this week has seen rival miner Rio Tinto Group freeze wages for 2016 and Japanese trading house Sumitomo Corp. take a charge of around $650 million against its nickel project in Madagascar.

“In what’s probably a protracted period of lower commodity prices, there’s this writedown and probably other writedowns to come elsewhere in the portfolio,” Tim Schroeders, a Melbourne-based portfolio manager at Pengana Capital Ltd., said by phone. “They are getting close to having to come clean on the progressive dividend.” Schroeders helps oversee about $1 billion in equities, including BHP shares.

BHP will cut its dividend payment by half to 31 U.S. cents in the six months to Dec. 31, according to Bloomberg Dividend Forecasts.

“At the moment, the biggest concern they have is can they fund their dividend, can they fund their capex plans?” Citigroup Inc. analyst Clarke Wilkins said by phone from Sydney. BHP is likely to trim both its dividend and project spending when it announces half-year results next month, he said.

BHP will balance its commitment to a strong balance sheet and maintaining its credit rating as it considers the dividend payout, Chairman Jac Nasser told investors at an annual meeting in Perth in November. The company declined to comment Friday on the prospect of any change to its dividend.

The writedown on its U.S. shale assets would extend to about $8.7 billion the post-tax charges BHP has booked against the operations in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. The new impairment will reduce the value of the business to about $16 billion, BHP said Friday in a statement.