Liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports from the Gladstone port in Australia’s Queensland rose 1.4 percent in 2023 compared to the previous year, according to 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.
The three terminals shipped about 22.97 million tonnes of LNG or 350 cargoes in 2023, GPC’s data shows.
This compares to about 22.64 million tonnes of LNG or 354 cargoes in 2022, the data shows.
In December 2023, LNG exports reached some 2.25 million tonnes of LNG or 32 cargoes, up from 1.84 million tonnes of LNG or 29 cargoes in December 2022, and also a rise from about 1.82 million tonnes of LNG or 28 cargoes in the prior month.
Most of 2023 LNG exports (13.46 million tonnes) landed in China, marking a rise compared to 12.38 million tonnes last year, the data shows.
Volumes to South Korea dropped to 3.42 million tonnes last year from 3.84 million tonnes in 2022, while volumes to Japan decreased to 1.98 million tonnes from 2.66 million tonnes.
GPC’s data also shows that Malaysian volumes were almost flat in 2023 reaching 2.21 million tonnes, while Singapore volumes rose to 1.51 million tonnes from 1.27 million tonnes in 2022.
During 2023, the three plants also sent 289,962 tonnes to Thailand and 67,400 tonnes to the Philippines, the data shows.
In August, LNG giant Shell supplied the commissioning cargo to First Gen’s FSRU-based terminal in Batangas, Philippines.
The Shell-operated QCLNG plant recently also shipped its 1000th cargo since it started operations in May 2015.
This is the first of the Queensland projects to reach 1,000 cargoes, according to Shell’s QGC.
