LNG Exports from Australia’s East Coast to China Hit Record in November

LNG export volumes to China from Gladstone in Queensland, Australia, were the highest monthly total ever recorded at the port, data from Gladstone Ports Corporation showed December 6.

Shipment volumes to China, which is the port’s largest export destination for the fuel, reached 1.14mn metric tons in November – up 26% year on year and 2% month on month, the GPC data showed.

The port is home to the Australia Pacific, Queensland Curtis and Gladstone LNG projects. The first LNG was produced at the port in January, 2015, from QCLNG.

South Korea, Japan and Malaysia were the only other destinations to receive cargoes from Gladstone in November.

Volumes to South Korea stood at 360,249 mt, down 25% year on year and up 57% month on month. Exports to Japan were 138,100 mt, a 27% fall year on year and 33% lower than October. And LNG to Malaysia was 59,866 mt, up from zero a year earlier and just 4% lower than October, the data showed.

Total exports from the port during the month were 1.70mn mt, which is up 4% year on year and 1% month on month. It’s the third biggest monthly export total to date. Each of the three Gladstone LNG projects have two trains each and they have a combined capacity of 25.3mn mt/year. For January-November, the three terminals have exported 18.22mn mt.

Only APLNG is running close to capacity, while QCLNG can trade on a portfolio basis and send much of its coal seam gas to the local market instead. Production from the GLNG terminal is lagging, National Australia Bank said last week.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Ben Wilson said earlier this week that a 27 year gas supply deal between Arrow and QCLNG opens up the future possibility of a third train at that terminal.