PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Federal Resources Minister Gary Gray has predicted that Australia would be the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter within the next five years.
Speaking at the seventeenth international conference on LNG, in Texas, Gray noted that seven of the world’s 12 LNG projects under construction were in Australia, adding that by 2018, the country’s production might approach 90-million tons a year.
Gray said that Australia was ramping up production to meet global demand for LNG, with the International Energy Agency predicting a 50% rise in gas demand by 2035. This made it the world’s fastest-growing energy source and likely to approach levels of demand for coal by then.
“The agency also notes that the global gas trade balance is shifting to the Asia-Pacific region, with more than two-thirds of LNG production now directed into these markets.
“This is largely a story of economic growth as developing countries become developed countries,” Gray said.
He noted that the emerging economies were set to account for 80% of increased global gas demand over the next 20 years.
“Asia-Pacific LNG imports will increase on average by 7% a year to reach 272-million tons a year by 2018, up from 185-million tons in 2012.
"China, alone, will account for a fifth of this increase and is on track to become one of the world’s largest LNG importers."
Australia already exports LNG from the North West Shelf, Darwin LNG, and Pluto. These will be joined by the Gorgon, Wheatstone, Ichthys, Queensland-Curtis Island, Gladstone and the Asia-Pacific LNG projects. The Prelude floating LNG project will be in the commissioning phase by then.