EnergyQuest has just released its Australian LNG Monthly for June 2020. Some of the highlights are as follows:
- Australian projects exported 79.4 Mt in the 12 months to June 2020, up 5.7% from 75.1 Mt a year earlier.
- Total LNG export revenue is estimated to be $47.9 billion in FY 2020, down $1.5 billion from a year earlier despite oil prices being stable in A$ terms.
- The best performing LNG projects were the Woodside-operated Pluto and Chevron-operated Wheatstone projects, which produced 109% and 105% of nameplate capacity respectively.
- Lower oil prices are starting to feed through into Australian LNG with extended maintenance, cargo deferrals, lower prices, and asset write-downs.
- Australian LNG shipments in June were down by eight cargoes compared with May, primarily due to scheduled maintenance at Gorgon.
- In June there were still a large number of cargoes that have had their delivery delayed.
- Deliveries to major North Asian markets in June 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.
- Woodside’s average realised LNG price in Q2 was US$5.00/MMBtu, down 38.3% from US$8.10/MMBtu realised in Q1, reflecting lower spot prices (comprising over 20% of Q2 sales), different lags under different contracts and many contracts indexed to Brent rather than the JCC.
- Average LNG import prices fell to US$6.94/MMBtu for China in May (the latest data available) from US$8.55/MMBtu a year earlier.
- Woodside, Origin Energy and Shell have announced significant impairments in relation to their Australian LNG assets due primarily to lower prices.
Information about the EnergyQuest Australian LNG Monthly is available by clicking here