Oz LNG Exports to Hit Record in 2020: EnergyQuest

Australian LNG exports this year are expected to reach record 78mn metric tons, up from 77.5mn mt in 2019, energy consultancy EnergyQuest said in a report published on December 16.

November exports were 6.9mn mt, higher than 6.7mn mt in October and 6.5mn mt in November 2019. This was despite supply disruptions from Gorgon, Australia’s second-largest project, and delays to the start-up of the Prelude floating LNG project, EnergyQuest said. “One of the reasons for the strong performance was record production from the east coast LNG projects at Gladstone. Taken together, the Gladstone projects exceeded nameplate capacity for the first time since exports commenced in January 2015,” it said.

Gladstone has three projects: the ConocoPhillips-Origin Energy Australia Pacific LNG, Shell’s Queensland Curtis LNG, and the Santos-led Gladstone LNG. 

In the 11 months to the year, Australia exported 71.5mn mt of LNG compared with 70.3mn mt exported over the same period in 2019. The two biggest markets for Australian LNG are Japan and China, which both took 2.6mn mt in November. This was more than the volume in November 2019 in both cases. The third and fourth biggest markets were Korea and Taiwan.

Australian projects delivered 38 cargoes to China in November, after delivering 31 in October and 38 in November 2019. Japan took in 39 deliveries in November, versus 37 in October and 38 in November 2019. Australia delivered 14 cargoes to Korea in November, up from 7 in the year-ago period.

While export volumes have done well during 2020, revenue has shrunk due to lower average realised prices. In March, total LNG export revenue was A$4.4bn (US$3.3bn) which dropped to A$1.8bn in September, EnergyQuest said. Revenue is starting to recover with higher oil and LNG spot prices, however. In October it came to A$2.2bn and EnergyQuest expects that it may have reached A$2.9bn in November.