LNG revenue halved, shipments plunge as vessels sit at anchor
Australian LNG revenue has halved since this time last year and fell by $1 billion in July alone, according to energy advisory firm EnergyQuest.
Gladstone's LNG exports are booming. (Photo: APLNG)
The EnergyQuest report also claims as much as 20 petajoules of LNG was unsold at the Gladstone refineries.
Its monthly report on the sector said 21 Australian LNG cargoes loaded during July were anchored offshore or were steaming slowly awaiting final destination orders during July, after 33 were delayed in June and 41 were seen to be delayed during May.
Average prices into China had also been hit with substantial falls but were up slightly in Korea.
“The Gladstone LNG producers had a production surplus in July, with total production from LNG producers 20.6 petajoules more than total LNG exports. This is higher compared with June when the producers had an 8.6 PJ surplus. LNG producers had a surplus of 16.8 PJ in July 2019,” the EnergyQuest report said.
“East coast projects shipped 1.628 million tonnes in 24 cargoes in July, a fall from the June shipment of 1.752 Mt and 26
cargoes.
“On an annualised basis east coast plants operated at 20.6 Mtpa in July, 82 per cent of nameplate capacity of 25.3 Mt, down from 84 per cent in June.
“EnergyQuest estimates that Australian LNG export revenue decreased significantly in July to $1.98 billion, down on $2.98 billion in June and down by 52 per cent on July 2019. We estimate Western Australia earned export revenue of $1 billion, Queensland revenue of $710 million and Darwin revenue of $207 million. ”
The report said Santos’s GLNG project shipped just five cargoes in July and was running at 43 per cent capacity.
