Australian LNG Exports Rise 37%
Australian LNG exports breached the 50mn metric tons mark for the first time during July 2016 to June 2017, according to consultancy EnergyQuest.
LNG exports from Australia during that 12-month period were 51.4mn mt, up 37% year on year.
EnergyQuest expects they will rise further during the 12-months to June 2018 to reach 63mn mt, arguing that Australia continues to more than hold its own in key north Asian markets against both Qatar, the world’s largest LNG exporter, and rapidly rising exports from the United States.
In the 12 months to June 2017 “production increased from almost every Australian LNG project, and both Western Australia and Queensland boosted their state outputs to higher levels,” EnergyQuest CEO Graeme Bethune said July 18.
EnergyQuest noted Australia's national LNG exports would rise further over coming months now that Gorgon shipments from Western Australia (WA) are accelerating, WA’s Wheatstone plant is to commence LNG production next month with first exports in September this year, and the Ichthys project near Darwin is due to commence production in 2018.
On the international sales front, Japan, China and Korea continue to be the dominant destinations for Australian exports, comprising 91% of deliveries in June. Australia continues to be the largest LNG supplier to Japan and China and the second-largest to South Korea after Qatar.
Last week the International Energy Agency said it expects global liquefaction (LNG export) capacity to reach 650bn m3/yr by 2022 – an increase of 160bn m3/yr from the current level -- on the back of additions chiefly in the US (90bn m3/yr) and Australia (30bn m3/yr). Australia though is to introduce powers to enable a regulator to rein back on LNG exports, with effect from January 2018, if there is a shortfall in gas supplies to the domestic market.
Shardul Sharma