Australia's Premier LNG Port Hits Fresh Record

LNG export volumes from the east coast of Australia hit a new record in December as sales to the region’s biggest customer, China, surged, data from Gladstone Ports Corporation (GPC) showed January 10.

The port of Gladstone is the leading export point for Australian LNG exports, with three liquefaction complexes shipping from there.

Australian Pacific LNG (owned by ConocoPhillips, local Origin Energy and Chinese Sinopec), Shell-run Queensland Curtis LNG, and Santos-led Gladstone LNG shipped a combined 1.99mn metric tons of LNG in December, smashing the previous record set a year earlier by 14%, the data showed.

The largest customers for LNG shipped from the port – China, Japan, Malaysia and South Korea – were the only destinations for December shipments, with cargoes to China and Malaysia at record volumes.

Gladstone’s LNG exports to China totalled 1.35mn metric tons (mt) during the month, up by 42% year on year and 18% month on month, the GPC data showed. Those shipped to Malaysia reached 129,866 mt, up from zero a year earlier and from 59,866 mt in November 2017.

South Korea, the second largest recipient of Gladstone LNG to date, saw volumes slump in December. It was sent 180,254 mt, a decline by 57% year on year and 50% month on month.

Gladstone shipments to Japan in December were at a four-month high of 335,067 mt, having risen 71% year on year and 143% month on month.

APLNG, QCLNG and GLNG have a combined nameplate capacity of 25.4mn mt, and the December throughput figures bring in their total exports for 2017 at 20.21mn mt. The 2017 result is up from 17.27mn metric tons in 2016 and 5.69mn metric tons in 2015. The first cargo shipped from Gladstone was in January 2015 (from QCLNG), with the last of the port’s six trains coming online in October, 2016.

Australia is tipped to become the world’s largest exporter of LNG in 2019.