Australian Financial Review: LNG Exports to Hit 80m tonnes ‘By End of Decade’

With many countries in Asia moving to a cleaner energy future, Australia’s much talked about liquefied natural gas boom is set to take off with several major LNG projects about to come online.

“Australia has been developing more LNG capacity at the one time than any other place on earth has ever done,” Graeme Bethune, chief executive of energy advisory firm EnergyQuest, said.

He said Australian LNG exports will grow from about “25 million tonnes a year now to about 80 million tonnes by about the end of the decade”.

Australia has three existing LNG projects and seven schemes in development around the country. Of the seven still under construction, four are located along the north coast of Western Australia, with three more in Queensland.

Over $180 billion is being invested across the seven projects.

Operated by Santos, the Gladstone LNG project in Queensland is expected to go online in 2015, with 7.2 million tonnes a year in aggregate contracted to Kogas in South Korea and Petronas in Malaysia.

The company also has a stake in the Darwin LNG plant, which began production in 2006 and has delivered more than 400 cargoes of LNG overseas. MORE