Squadron expects South Australian LNG terminal launch by 2023

Squadron Energy is on track to begin commercial operations at the Port Kembla LNG import facility in southern Australia by the end of next year, Reuters reported March 22.

Squadron commercial director Evonne Bennett told a local gas conference that the facility would be "ready for first gas" in the fourth quarter of 2023, having completed the engineering of earthworks and built a new wharf.

Australia has seen a boom in LNG exports over the past decade and now vies with Qatar and one of the leading global LNG exporters. But while its export terminals are all located in the north of the country, its most inhabited areas in the southeast lack gas reserves, with a deficit expected to appear as early as 2024.

Port Kembla is located in New South Wales (NSW) around 90 km south of Australia's largest city Sydney in the southeast. Its planned capacity of more than 100 petajoules of gas/year would be sufficient to meet around 75% of NSW's gas demand, Squadron Energy has said. The company is also developing a dual-fuel power station that would combine gas feedstock with green hydrogen.

The LNG terminal's floating storage and regasification unit could receive  LNG from existing liquefaction plants in Western Australia or Queensland, as well as cargoes from overseas.

Squadron Energy's project is one of five proposed Australian LNG import terminals. It is still to announce details of its gas supply arrangements, unlike its rival Viva Energy, which aims to launch its facility in 2024 and has a memorandum of understanding for LNG from Woodside Petroleum.

A terminal at Port Adelaide developed by Venice Energy is also due to launch in 2024, and could benefit from reversed gas flows through domestic pipes to meet shortages in Victoria.  The state of Victoria accounts for around 65% of residential gas demand nationwide, according to The Age newspaper.