Liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from the Gladstone port in Australia’s Queensland increased in March compared to the same month last year due to higher volumes going to China, according to the monthly data by Gladstone Ports Corporation.
Curtis Island is home to the Santos-operated GLNG plant, the ConocoPhillips-led APLNG terminal, and Shell’s QCLNG facility. These are the only LNG export facilities on Australia’s east coast.
Last month, about 2.07 million tonnes of LNG or 31 cargoes left the three Gladstone terminals on Curtis Island.
This compares to about 1.74 million tonnes of LNG or 27 cargoes in March 2023, the data shows.
March LNG exports rose some 19 percent year-on-year and they also rose compared to the previous month when LNG exports reached some 1.98 million tonnes of LNG or 30 cargoes.
Moreover, most of March LNG exports (1.45 million tonnes) landed in China, marking a rise of 48.7 percent compared to 974,903 tonnes last year.
The rest of the Gladstone LNG exports in March landed in Malaysia (245,757 tonnes), South Korea (176,594 tonnes), Japan (134,984 tonnes), and Singapore (68,866 tonnes), GPC’s data shows.
Volumes to Malaysia dropped slightly compared to 248,238 tonnes last year, while volumes to South Korea decreased from 226,041 tonnes last year and volumes to Japan dropped from 187,657 tonnes last year.
Volumes to Singapore dropped slightly compared to 66,167 tonnes in March 2023.
The three Gladstone terminals shipped about 22.97 million tonnes of LNG or 350 cargoes in 2023.
This compares to about 22.64 million tonnes of LNG or 354 cargoes in 2022.