BHP Billiton had a challenging year

CANBERRA, Australia, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- Australian company BHP Billiton, the largest of its kind, said Tuesday it expected payoffs from fiscal discipline after reporting its worst-ever loss.

The company posted an underlying profit of $1.9 billion, 14 percent lower year-on-year, revenue of $30.1 billion for the fiscal year ending June 30, a 31 percent decline, and $4.9 billion in write offs associated with its oil and natural gas portfolio in the United States.

"The last 12 months have been challenging for both BHP Billiton and the resources industry," CEO Andrew Mackenzie said in a statement.

Costs associated with BHP's businesses for oil and copper were down by double-digit percentage points from last year, putting pressure on a company still recovering from the tragedy at its Samarco dam in November. Five members of the regional community and 14 workers died as a result of the failure.

The company posted a $2.2 billion financial impact because of the dam failure in Brazil.

While pointing to a disciplined approach to spending, the company said it planned to invest up to $800 million next year on exploration and production activity, with progress already made in an exploratory program in Trinidad and Tobago and in the U.S. waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Total spending is expected to increase nearly 15 percent by 2017 to $6.2 billion.

"We continue to pursue capital-efficient latent capacity opportunities which will support volume growth of up to 4 percent next year, excluding our onshore U.S. assets, where we continue to defer activity to maximize value," Mackenzie said.

The company last year said it would take a scaled-back approach to navigating the downturn. In February, the company posted its first loss in more than 16 years and cut its dividend paid to shareholders by about 75 percent.

Looking forward, the company said it expected to see some short-term recovery for crude oil prices, but said the outlook remained clouded by global economic uncertainty and heightened market volatility.