The Australia Pacific LNG project logged lower revenue during the quarter ending December 30 compared to the same quarter last year, according to shareholder Origin Energy.
Origin, whose shareholders in December rejected a takeover offer from a consortium consisting of Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management and a unit of US-based energy investor EIG, said in its quarterly report that APLNG revenue reached about A$2.38 billion ($1.56 billion) in the October-December period.
Compared to the December quarter of 2022, APLNG revenue decreased 25 percent, while it rose 1 percent compared to the prior quarter.
Origin said that APLNG revenue rose compared to previous quarter due to higher realized average LNG prices and higher LNG sales volumes.
The company’s share of APLNG revenue for the December quarter was A$591 million, compared with A$821 million in 2022.
The company owns a 22.5 percent in the project and is the upstream operator, while China’s Sinopec owns a 25 percent share in APLNG.
US energy giant ConocoPhillips has a 47.5 percent share in the APLNG project and operates the 9 mtpa LNG export facility on Curtis Island near Gladstone.
LNG carrier incident impacted cargo loadings
Origin said that APLNG sold 32 cargoes during October-December, down from 34 cargoes in the same quarter in 2022 but a rise compared to 31 cargoes in the prior quarter.
APLNG’s December quarter realized average LNG price was $11.88/MMBtu, compared to 15.94/MMBtu in 2022 and 11.62/MMBtu in the prior quarter, while average domestic price was A$6.39/GJ.
Production of 167.4 PJ dropped 4 percent when compared to the previous quarter but it rose 1 percent compared to the same quarter in 2022.
December quarter production was lower than the prior quarter due to unplanned commercial turndown after an LNG vessel lost power at the Curtis Island facility in late November, Origin said.
The 174,100-cbm Cesi Qingdao, owned by a joint venture of MOL, Cosco Shipping, and Sinopec is the vessel in question.
As a result, three LNG cargoes were unable to be loaded, Origin said.
Origin CEO Frank Calabria said in the statement that APLNG production “continued to perform strongly”, boosting production for the first half of FY2024 to 342.3 PJ, a rise of 3 percent compared with a year earlier, “benefiting from effective well and field optimization activities and fewer maintenance disruptions.”
“It was pleasing to see production rebound to a daily record by mid-December, following the turndown due to the LNG vessel that lost power at Curtis Island in late November,” he said.
