Oz Annual LNG Exports Up 6%
Australian LNG shipments during the 12-months to June 30 (FY2020) were 79.4mn metric tons, up 5.7% yr/yr, energy consultancy EnergyQuest said in a report published on July 16.
Around 85% of exports in FY2020 were under disclosed long-term contracts, EnergyQuest said. Contracts include at least 4.8mn mt of sales into LNG portfolios.
Australia delivered 29.3mn mt to China, up by 7% on the previous year. This is considerably more than disclosed long-term contracts of 19.1mn mt, Energy Quest said, adding that some of the difference is portfolio sales. For example, QCLNG has a 3.6mn mt/year contract with Cnooc but delivered 6mn mt in China in the year, the difference being Shell portfolio sales.
The NWS, Gorgon and APLNG delivered 4mn mt in excess of contracts and GLNG, Pluto, Wheatstone, Darwin and Ichthys delivered 3.7mn mt despite not having any disclosed contracts. These deliveries are likely to be under short-term contracts or spot sales, EnergyQuest added.
Australia delivered 30.2mn mt to Japan in FY2020, slightly down from 30.5mn mt delivered the previous year. Japanese volumes are largely in line with disclosed contracts.
Australia delivered 8.8mn mt to Korea, up by 12% on the previous year. Kogas is contracted to receive 7.1mn mt/yr from Australian projects, including 3.64mn mt/yr from Prelude which is not yet operational. Only Gorgon and GLNG have disclosed contracts with Kogas but most projects delivered cargoes to Korea, EnergyQuest said.
In June Australian projects shipped 5.9mn mt (85 cargoes), lower than 6.4mn mt (93 cargoes) in May, and less than the 6.2mn (90 cargoes) in June 2019. In June there were still a large number of cargoes that have had their delivery delayed. EnergyQuest estimates thirty-three Australian cargoes loaded during June have anchored offshore or are steaming slowly awaiting final destination orders during June after forty-one were seen to be delayed during May.
Deliveries to major North Asian markets were lower compared with June 2019. Australian projects delivered a total of 70 cargoes to China, Japan and Korea in June, down from 77 cargoes a year earlier. There were two additional deliveries to China but there were five fewer deliveries to Korea and four fewer deliveries to Japan.