Oz East Coast LNG Exports Hit Eight-month High

Australia’s east coast LNG exports were at an eight-month high in September, rising for the third consecutive month, figures from the Gladstone Ports Corporation (GPC) showed October 8.

Exports from the region, which come via the export terminals at the Port of Gladstone in Queensland, Australia, were 1.77 million metric tonnes during the month, which is up 5% year on year and a touch higher than the seven-month high of 1.76mn mt set in August, the figures showed.

LNG is exported from Gladstone from the ConocoPhillips-Origin Energy Australia Pacific LNG (APLNG) terminal, Shell’s Queensland Curtis LNG and the Santos-led Gladstone LNG project.

APLNG had scheduled maintenance from September 11-17, which saw one of its two trains reduced to half capacity. The work followed similar outages at APLNG from July 17-22 and August 21-26. APLNG is a 9mn mt/year capacity terminal. ConocoPhillips and Origin Energy each hold 37.5% interests and Sinopec has a 25% stake.

LNG exports from Gladstone to Japan surged in the month to 127,387 mt, up 110% year on year and 92% month on month and the highest monthly volume since May, the GPC data showed.

Volumes to Malaysia also rocketed, hitting a nine-month high of 125,304 mt, which is up 96% year on year and 101% from August, it showed.

Meanwhile, shipments to China slid to a six-month low of 1.04mn mt, down 8% on year and 17% on month, it said.

South Korea was sent 336,740 mt, down 21% on year and 9% on month. The only other destination to be sent LNG from Gladstone in September was Singapore with 133,252 mt. It’s the fifth month this year that Singapore has been shipped LNG from Gladstone.