Australian extractive industries multinational BHP Billiton reported a US$74 million unrealised gain from its already-producing Angostura field for the 2014 financial year ended June 30.Unrealised gain or loss is an accounting term that means the gain or loss is only a book profit or loss. In 2013, the company posted a US$84 million unrealised loss at Angostura.
In its August 19 press release announcing results for the year ended June 30, 2014, the company accounted for "an unrealised gain of US$74 million related to Angostura embedded derivative (2013: US$84 million unrealised loss)."
Giving an update on "exploration and business development" at the company, the release said it was going after "high-impact liquids opportunities" in T&T. The release said BHP Billiton's "exploration expenditure declined by 25 per cent in the 2014 financial year to US$1.0 billion as we sharpened our focus on greenfield copper porphyry targets in Chile and Peru, and high-impact liquids opportunities in the Gulf of Mexico, Western Australia and T&T.
"The associated reduction in the group's exploration expense increased underlying earnings before income tax (EBIT) by US$331 million while a further decline in business development expenditure increased underlying EBIT by US$67 million."
In the release, BHP Billiton also announced a simpler structure that showed T&T is now in the company's "simpler" petroleum portfolio with Western Australia Iron Ore, Samarco, Queensland Coal, NSW Energy Coal, Cerrej�n, Escondida, Olympic Dam, Pampa Norte, Antamina, Onshore US, Shenzi, Mad Dog, Atlantis, Angostura (T&T), North West Shelf, Bass Strait, Pyrenees, Macedon and the Jansen project.
In the release BHP Billiton also said: "Petroleum exploration expenditure for 2014 financial year was US$600 million, of which US$369 million was expensed. During the period, BHP Billiton signed a production sharing contract for Block 23b (60 per cent interest and operator) and farmed into Blocks 23a and 14 (70 per cent interest and operator) in T&T."A US$750 million exploration programme, largely focused on the Gulf of Mexico, Western Australia and the collection of seismic data in T&T is planned for the 2015 financial year."
This means BHP Billiton's farm in to two of BP's deep water acreage blocks, reported in April, would have cost a fraction of US$369 million.The last 12 months have been a busy period for acquisitions in the energy sector. In July Trinity Exploration and Production plc said it was paying Centrica US$23 million for 80 per cent in two undeveloped blocks.
A week earlier in the same month, Leni said it was paying Singapore's Rex International Caribbean subsidiary US$5 million for a 100 per cent interest in the producing Trinity-Inniss field in south-eastern Trinidad; and in October last year, the National Gas Company (NGC) paid France's Total US$473 million for 30 per cent in Block 2(c) and 8.5 per cent in Block 3(a), producing fields off the east coast of Trinidad.
