Australian LNG Revenue To Increase On Higher Exports, Higher Prices

Australia is expecting an increase in the value of LNG exports from $23 billion to $39 billion, Australia’s Department of Industry, Innovation and Science said on Monday in its publication, Resources and Energy Quarterly.

Australia is looking to raise the country’s LNG export price for FY 2018-2019, and expects higher export volumes as well.

The price of its LNG, which is tied to oil prices, is expected to increase “modestly, constrained by price-sensitive shale oil in the United States and sluggish growth in world oil consumption,” the government body said.

Australia also said that it is expecting to ramp up LNG exports, with the last of Australia’s LNG projects due to completion by the end of 2018. The global LNG market expected to move into a period of overcapacity brought on by increases in LNG exports in both Australia and the United States.

For Australia, the final three Australian LNG projects currently underway will bring its total export capacity to 88 million tonnes. This time last year, Australia announced it would opt to restrict LNG exports in times of high demand and rising prices at home.

The expected increase in the value of exports for Australia is substantial—from $23 billion in 2016-2017 to $39 billion in 2022-2023. For FY 2018-2019, LNG is expected to wrest the title of Australia’s second largest resource and energy export away from metallurgical coal.

Another of Australia’s resources—oil—is also expected to see an increase in exports from $5.6 billion to in FY 2016-2017 to $9.3 billion in 2022-2023, like LNG, driven by higher export volumes and higher oil prices.

Australia’s LNG exports hit record highs in 2017 of 56.8 mtpa—a shocking 26.3 percent increase over the previous calendar year. Its LNG export revenue, which was boosted even further by the higher oil prices, increased 44.1 percent to $20.51 billion in calendar year 2017.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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