Australia: The World’s Next LNG Leader
With a spate of big new projects coming on stream in the next few years, Australia is soon expected to become the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association (APPEA) says that Australia is on track to overtake Qatar to become the world's largest exporter of liquefied natural gas in 2018.
According to a new report from Accenture, Australia’s Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) industry is poised to become the world’s largest and most technologically advanced, contributing more than AUD$55 billion to Australia’s GDP in 2020.
The country's largest LNG project, Gorgon, is expected to start up in the coming months, meaning seven major LNG projects will be operating this year. Once everything under construction is built, which is scheduled to be by the end of 2017, Australia will have more capacity than Qatar, say industry observers.
A series of projects now in development is expected to bring more than 3 trillion cubic ft per year [Tcf/y] of new capacity on line over the next 2 years.
The LNG industry already claims to be Australia's fastest growing export sector. The robust growth predicted for China, India, and other Asia Pacific region economies in the coming decades will drive a surging demand for LNG.
APPEA said that investments of $200 billion in current Australian projects augur well for the long term.
