JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Australian liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports hit 56.8-million tonnes last year, jumping 26.3% from 44.9-million in 2016, owing to a watershed year of exports to China.

Combined with higher oil prices, the increase in volumes pushed up Australia’s 2017 LNG export revenue by 44.1% to A$25.8-billion, the December LNG report from energy consultancy, EnergyQuest, has highlighted.

EnergyQuest CEO Dr Graeme Bethune said on Tuesday that growth in demand from China was the stand-out success story, with exports having increased by 40.5%, from 12.4-million tonnes in 2016 to 17.5-million tonnes in 2017.

“China is now Australia’s second-largest LNG market and Australia is China’s biggest LNG supplier,” he pointed out, adding that the increased demand was not only good for Australian producers, but also had an emerging positive impact for China’s environment.

“The country is making a massive switch from coal to gas to reduce air pollution in major cities such as Beijing - and now Australian LNG is playing a significant role in achieving this goal,” Bethune highlighted.

Japan remained the largest importer of Australian LNG, with some 26.7-million tonnes imported in 2017, up by 18.1% from 2016. Exports to Korea also increased significantly in 2017.

“LNG jumped from Australia’s fifth-largest export in 2016 to the third-largest export in 2017, overtaking gold and education. To put A$25.8-billion of export revenue in perspective, this is more than the cost of Australia’s imports of passenger vehicles, which was A$21.8-billion in 2016/17. Passenger vehicles are Australia’s second-biggest import cost,” Bethune added.

The EnergyQuest December monthly report further highlighted Australia as the world’s second-biggest LNG exporter by a substantial margin and catching up with Qatar, the biggest exporter.

While the North-West Shelf (NWS) remained the country’s largest LNG producer, oil giant Chevron’s 2.6-billion cubic feet Gorgon project, on Barrow Island, about 60 km off the northwest coast of Western Australia, rapidly increased production to take second place, which led to the increase in exports.

This was further bolstered by higher shipments from Australia Pacific’s LNG project at Gladstone, in Queensland.