BHP, the world’s largest miner, will release its second-quarter production report on Wednesday, with expectations it will outline a drop in oil production after a seasonally strong September quarter.

“This will offset another strong result from the Pilbara, where we forecast a 2 per cent increase in production to 63.8 million ¬tonnes,” Deutsche Bank’s Paul Young said.

The lower oil production is said to be because of seasonal factors relating to the Australian conventional assets and the US onshore dry gasfields.

Mr Young said an update on the US onshore drilling strategy was likely and he expected rigs to be dropped from the Permian shale assets in West Texas and a slowdown in completions in the Black Hawk shales of Texas.

Rio Tinto releases its fourth-quarter production report on Tuesday.

Deutsche Bank expects slight decreases in copper, bauxite and coal output in the quarter, which will offset an increase in iron ore ¬production.

Despite the dip in some of Rio’s production, analysts expect another year of record output for the global miner across a range of commodities, with production guidance likely exceeded for most commodities.

Investors are focused on shareholder returns, and analysts are forecasting the company will return between $1 billion and $4bn of stock over the next three years, with the most focused on the lower end of that range, through a share buyback and lift in the progressive dividend.

Rio chief Sam Walsh told staff in an email the company would have a greater focus in 2015 on ¬creating the right ¬conditions to deliver sustainable ¬returns to shareholders every year.

“We will do this by managing our business for cash and this must become our underlying way of thinking at all levels of the business,” he said in the email.

The head of the global mining giant also told staff that 2015 would be a tough year, saying there was no doubt the miner was operating in a different pricing environment.

“While there is potential benefit stemming from currency and oil price movements, iron ore ¬prices fell by almost 50 per cent in 2014 and there were substantial falls across most of our other commodities,” he said.

“So, while we can’t control all of the external factors impacting our performance, we must take charge of what we can.”

“This means we need to ¬continue do the things that make a difference — rein in our costs, ¬ensure every dollar is wisely spent, produce to sell, remove wasteful working capital and maintain a strong balance sheet,” Mr Walsh said.

Mr Walsh told his staff they must develop a greater sense of urgency in making changes to ¬improve the business and have the “courage” to anticipate and respond to changing market ¬conditions.

“2015 will be another big year for Rio Tinto and we must not get distracted,” he said.