Guidance

Woodside Petroleum (WPL) oil and gas full year production may have fallen 11 per cent compared to the previous corresponding period, but it has exceeded the company's full-year production guidance. The company's 64.6 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMboe) for its full year production had beaten its previous forecast of 62-64 MMboe.

Australian energy firm Santos (STO) has reported a 9 per cent fall in production for the three months to December compared to the previous year but says that its full year production is still within its guidance. Santos produced 11.7 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) in the last quarter of 2011, giving the energy firm a full year production of 47.2 mmboe, 5 per cent down compared to 2010.

Rio Tinto (ASX:RIO) is on track to meet production targets for 2011 although coal operations were hard hit by flooding. On Thursday, Rio posted a 12 percent increase in second quarter output but slashed its full year coal, bauxite and iron ore production guidance.

Rains are causing more damage than expected back in April when the guidance was set. Rio chief executive Tom Albanese said that commodity price gains will go to the miner's bottom line, but not all of it.

The June Christchurch earthquake and its resulting new claims failed to shake Insurance Australia Group's (ASX:IAG) financial guidance for 2011. IAG confirmed its guidance despite claims worth $65 million.

Costs due to natural disasters jumped to about $600 million for the year to end of June, nearly a 50 percent rise from the $435 million it forecast at the beginning of the financial year.

Although Insurance Australia Group (ASX:IAG) said today that it's too early to evaluate the impact of the Christchurch tremors, it has reaffirmed its underlying gross premium growth guidance of three to five percent.

The company also plans to speed up future growth and intents to get 10 percent of its gross written premium from Asia by 2016. Expansion would cover Malaysia, Thailand, India, China, Vietnam and Indonesia.

Newcrest Mining (NCM) has slashed its guidance for 2011 after a failure at its Lihir Island mine power station. The gold miner bought Lihir for $10 billion last year and it could now cost the company $170 million in annual revenue.

Wesfarmers (ASX:WES) has downgraded its coal sales guidance due to extreme weather conditions at its Curragh mine in Queensland during the April quarter.

In a Thursday briefing, Wesfarmers told analysts it endured "significantly higher cash costs per tonne" due to heavy rainfall curbing production at the metallurgical mine.

Following the sale of part of its stake in the Codrilla coal deposit in Queensland, Macarthur Coal (ASX:MCC) has increased its profit guidance. The coal producer's 2011 net profit guidance rose to between $240 and $260 million from the $185 to $205 million previously announced.

Whitehaven Coal (ASX:WHC) has slashed its profit guidance after Japan deliveries were reduced. The March and June quarters saw deferred coal shipments to Japan from Newcastle because of damage from the earthquake and tsunami.

The company said, "The principal reason ... is the deferral of metallurgical coal shipments from Newcastle to Japan during the March and June quarters." Shares dropped 20 cents or 3 percent to $6.52, the lowest since March 24.

After a reported 16 percent dip in the March quarter, the country's largest gold producer, Newcrest Mining, (ASX:NCM), reduced its full-year guidance for gold production to approximately 2.82 million ounces, citing flooding at its Bonikro mine in the Ivory Coast.