JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Combined exports from Australia’s three liquefied natural gas (LNG) hubs surged 18.5% in June as the country’s LNG plants continued to add to global energy supplies.

Total June output climbed to 3.6-million tonnes – an increase of 560 000 t over the May total – with strong contributions from the North West Shelf (NWS) and Pluto plants, in Western Australia, and the Queensland Curtis LNG (QCLNG) project at Gladstone, on the Queensland coast.

And despite low oil and LNG prices, Australia’s six LNG projects all maintained high levels of production in June, in many cases above nameplate capacity.

The update is contained in the new ‘Monthly LNG Report’ by independent energy analyst, EnergyQuest.

The ramping up Queensland plants consumed 87 PJ of conventional and coal seam gas during June, contributing to a short-term domestic gas price hike on the east coast as it shivered under unduly cold winter conditions.

“The strong growth in Australia’s June LNG exports reflects a full month of resumed production from the Woodside-operated NWS, which underwent planned maintenance in May, together with particularly strong performance from Woodside’s Pluto project and Shell’s QCLNG project in Gladstone,” EnergyQuest CEO Dr Graeme Bethune said on Tuesday.

“We expect further growth in Australian LNG exports over the next six months as the second trains of the GLNG and Australia Pacific LNG projects come into production and the Chevron-operated Gorgon project in Western Australia begins to ramp up.”

Total LNG export volumes out of Queensland, of 1.4-million tonnes (22 cargoes) in June, were starting to shadow those of Western Australia, which exported 1.8-million tonnes (27 cargoes) in June.

“The growth in Queensland exports is quite remarkable given that its first LNG project only commenced exporting 18 months ago,” Bethune said.

The Northern Territory exported 0.3-million tonnes of LNG (five cargoes) from the Darwin LNG project in June.

Northern Territory would start growing from late next year when the INPEX Ichthys, in Darwin, also started production.

EnergyQuest estimated that 44 cargoes were delivered from Australian projects in June, mostly to traditional north Asian customers (22 to Japan, 15 to China, 2 to Korea and 1 to Taiwan), but there were also two cargoes each to India and to Egypt.