Photo by: Bloomberg
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Queensland has reported record annual liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments from Gladstone for 2020/21, despite the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Treasurer and Minister for Investment Cameron Dick said 23-million tonnes of LNG left Gladstone during the past financial year, a 3.72% increase from the year prior.
“Queensland’s Covid-19 Economic Recovery Plan has created confidence in our state. That runs through our health response, our businesses and industries, and our valuable exports like LNG.
“These export volumes have provided a huge boost to our economy and have allowed us to invest even more in services, infrastructure and jobs as part of the Covid-19 Economic Recovery Budget I handed down last month.
“This result is also a credit to all the Queenslanders in Gladstone and across our state who are operating our ports and making sure our exports continue to ship out, no matter what challenges lay ahead.”
The LNG was exported from three Gladstone Ports Corporation (GPC) terminals on Curtis Island.
Data to the end of June 2021 shows GPC looked after 350 LNG vessel movements, ported 1 909 ships and exported and imported 123-million tonnes through its ports in Gladstone, Rockhampton and Bundaberg.
Minister for Resources Scott Stewart said the gas sector is a critical contributor to the economy and the industry supports thousands of jobs.
“Not only does the gas sector create direct jobs but the positive flow-on effects are evident in the indirect jobs it enables downstream in the energy and manufacturing sectors,” Stewart said.
“Queensland continues to do the heavy lifting on supplying domestic gas. The government has released more than 80 000 km2 of land for gas exploration since 2015 with over a quarter of the gas guaranteed for Australian consumers.”
Minister for Regional Development and Manufacturing and Minister for Water Glenn Butcher said the Gladstone region is benefiting from decades of investment from the Queensland government through its State-owned assets.
“Our world-class deepwater port, water security through Awoonga dam, and industry attraction via our State Development Area have all meant Gladstone is set up to benefit from further industry growth,” Butcher said.
“It’s because of our investment that the Gladstone region has an outstanding record in delivering huge growth in energy exports from a standing start.”
“Our next challenge is the development and expansion of a fully integrated, export-scale hydrogen supply chain. To get there we’re focused on jobs now in exploration, jobs during construction, jobs during export operations, and jobs right through the manufacturing supply chain.”