Australian gas market
Summary
As of May 2025, there are 10 LNG plants in Australia. Current operational capacity is 81.4 million tons of LNG per year. There are 6.2 million tons of idle capacity at two plants. An additional capacity of 5 million tons per year is under construction.
Australia is currently the third-largest LNG exporter, behind the United States and Qatar, and significantly ahead of Russia. Previously, Australia was the leading LNG exporter in the world. Australia continues to develop new LNG projects, but the pace of capacity commissioning is significantly lower than that of the United States and Qatar. The Australian gas industry is in a mature phase.
It is in Australia where experimental and insanely expensive Prelude floating LNG plant is operating - a masterpiece of engineering that does not fully meet financial expectations due to constantly emerging technical and organizational problems.
Export directions are determined by geographical location of Australia. Structure of importers of Australian LNG is dominated by China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan (province of China). Australia is the leading supplier of LNG to both China and Japan - two world’s leading markets. Structure of the global LNG market strongly depends on Sino-Australian relations.
One of reasons of political tension in the Australian gas market is shareholder structures of most LNG projects - most of the prpjects are owned by foreign companies and, accordingly, the bulk of the profits from the export of Australian LNG goes outside Australia.
Related to this is another strategic problem of the Australian gas industry - domestic policy requirements to prioritize the needs of the domestic natural gas market over LNG exports. The geographical remoteness of key gas fields on the one hand and the largest cities and industrial centers on the other hand, relatively undeveloped national system of internal gas pipelines are key factors in tension in the country's gas industry. To reduce the risks of energy supply to the most populated regions of southeastern Australia, floating regasification terminals with a total capacity of 12 million tons of LNG per year are being built.
Natural gas production
Gas continues to be the main target source of primary energy for Australia. Following the elections on May 3, 2025, the updated energy policy of the country includes the decommissioning of coal-fired thermal power plants starting in the late 2020s, the use of gas as a target fuel for electric generation, and the construction of nuclear power plants with commissioning in the late 2030s. This leads to the prioritization of domestic gas consumption over its export in the form of LNG. The prioritization of domestic consumption is realized both in the form of the need to channel gas from future onshore fields to the domestic gas networks of the country, and the construction of regasification terminals to receive LNG from the country's LNG plants operating on the resources of offshore fields.
Key developments in gas production in Australia:
The development of the Scarborough natural gas field, located in the Carnarvon Basin, about 375 km off the coast of Western Australia, is underway. The development includes the installation of a semi-submersible floating production facility moored at a depth of 950 m, connected by a pipeline with a length of about 430 km to the second train of the Pluto LNG plant at an existing onshore facility. Eight wells will be drilled initially. Further, 13 more wells will be drilled during the life of the Scarborough field. The launch is scheduled for 2026.
The launch of the Barosso gas field in the second half of 2025, whose gas reserves are estimated at 110 billion cubic meters of gas at 2P (total proven and probable reserves), will allow the restart of the Darwin LNG plant.
There is a confrontation between Australia and East Timor over the frozen Big Sunrise gas project located on the border of East Timor and Australia. Its development was suspended due to disagreements between East Timor and Australia. The field, whose potential revenues from development are estimated at 137 mAUD / 7 trillion RUB / 327 mAED / 642 bCNY / 7.7 trillions INR (gas reserves - 144 billion cubic meters, gas condensate reserves - 31 million tons), is of vital importance to the economy of East Timor. The former main source of revenue for the state budget of East Timor, the Bayu Undan oil and gas field, has been depleted (82% depleted) and stopped exporting gas in 2023. The dispute over the maritime border between the two countries was resolved in 2018. The main obstacle to development is the disagreement over whether gas should be supplied to the new LNG plant in East Timor or to the existing Darwin LNG plant. In contrast to its big neighbor, East Timor is considering the possibility of attracting new partners to develop this field if the economics of the deal with Australia are not in favor of its country. Chinese and Kuwaiti companies are being considered. The closest communication is with Sinopec.
The launch of the second stage of development of the Vaitsia gas field in the third quarter of 2025 will provide additional gas resources for the Northwest Shelf LNG plant.
Long-term hopes for replenishing the resource base of the North West Shelf LNG plant are pinned on the Brauz offshore field, whose reserves, according to the 2C indicator (promising, undiscovered reserves), are estimated at 394 billion cubic meters of gas.
LNG Plants
Australia's LNG plants:
The first plant in Australia is the North West Shelf. It is owned by local BHP and Woodside Energy, Brirish BP and Shell, US Chevron, Japanese Mitsubishi and Mitsui. Trains:
Trains I and II were put into operation in 1989. The capacity is 4.1 MTPA. As of May 2025, Train II has been idled due to exhaustion of the resource base.
Train III was commissioned in 1992. The capacity is 4.1 MTPA.
Train IV was put into operation in 2004. Capacity - 4.1 MTPA.
Train V was put into operation in 2008. Capacity - 4.1 MTPA.
Darwin LNG. It was put into operation in 2006. The capacity is 3.7 MTPA. It is owned by local Santos (is going to be owned by ADNOC), US ConocoPhillips, Japanese Inpex, JERA, Tokyo Gas and Italian Eni. It has been suspended since November 2023 due to exhaustion of the resource base. Currently, the issue of supplying natural gas to Darwin LNG from Great sunrise field, which is jointly owned by East Timor and Australia, is being considered.
Pluto LNG. The capacity is 5.1 MTPA. It was put into operation in 2012. It is owned by the local Woodside Energy and the Japanese Tokyo Gas Company and Kansai Electric Company. Scarborough energy project is underway to develop neighboring field of the same name and liquefy the gas produced there at the Pluto LNG plant. The launch of Scarborough project will help to produce about 8 MTPA of LNG per year. Approximately 5 MTPA of Scarborough gas will be processed on the second Pluto LNG train. The existing first train will receive up to 3 MTPA The project is expected to be launched in 2026.
Gladstone LNG. It is owned by local by now Santos (which will be part of ADNOC soon), Malaysian Petronas, Korean Gas Corporation and French TotalEnergies. The first train was commissioned in 2015, the second - in 2016. Each has a capacity of 4.2 MTPA.
Queensland Curtis LNG. Trains:
The first train was commissioned in 2015. The capacity is 4.3 MTPA. It is owned by British Shell and Chinese CNOOC.
The second train was commissioned in 2016. The capacity is 4.3 MTPA. It is owned by British Shell and Japanese Tokyo gas company.
Australian-Pacific LNG. Both trains were introduced in 2016. The capacity of each is 4.5 MTPA. It is owned by local Source Energy, US ConocoPhillips and Chinese Sinopec.
Gorgon LNG. It is owned by US Chevron and ExxonMobil, British Shell, Japanese Osaka gas company, Tokyo Gas Company and JERA. Three trains were commissioned in 2016-2017 with a capacity of 5.2 MTPA each.
Wheatstone LNG. Identical trains were commissioned in 2017-2018 with a capacity of 4.9 MTPA each. It is owned by US Chevron, local Woodside Energy, Japanese Jogmeg, Mitsubishi, Kyushu Electric Company, Japan Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK), JERA and a Kuwaiti KNPC.
Ichthys LNG. It is owned by Japanese Inpex, Tokyo Gas Company, Osaka Gas Company, Kansai Electric Company, Jera, Toho Gas Company, French Total Energy, Taiwanese CPC. Both trains were commissioned in 2018 with a capacity of 4.0 MTPA.
The unique floating LNG plant Prelude, which is one of the most complex engineering structures in all industries. It was put into operation in 2019. Owners: Brirish Shell , Japanese Inpex, Taiwanese CPC, Korean Gas Corporation. Capacity: 3.6 MTPA. It is often undergoing unscheduled repairs due to its hyper-complex design.\\
The construction of LNG plants in Australia began in the 1980s. The first LNG loading was made in 1989. The peak commissioning of LNG plants in Australia occurred in 2015-2019.
UAE state company ADNOC made in June 2025 offer to buy Santos company, including their domestic and abroad LNG assets.
Most of the LNG plants are located in the north-west of Australia. The only exception is Queensland Curtis.
LNG Loadings
The table “Monthly LNG loadings volumes at Australian ports“ provides statistics on the loading of gas carriers in Australian ports with aggregation for calendar months. The data is available from October 2022. 01.MM.YYYY means shipments for the entire calendar month starting on that day. Shipments for the current month are indicated by cumulative total from the first day of the month to the current date. The delay in receiving data is up to one day. The data is updated automatically.
The table “Details of LNG loadings in Australia during last 30 days“ provides the data on loading of gas carriers at gas-liquefying plants in Australia during last 30 days and is updated automatically.
Shippers
The graph “Carriers of Australian LNG" shows statistics on the volume of LNG shipments from Australian ports grouped by shipping managers. The data is given for last 365 days and is updated automatically.
Leaders of LNG transportation from Australia:
Maran Gas Maritime Inc (the world's leading LNG shipper).
Shell International Trade and Supply Company (a Shell division)
Chevron Corporation.
Export destinations
The table “Destination countries of Australian LNG Export" provides statistics on importing countries of Australian LNG with aggregation by calendar months. The date of gas carrier loading is used, the data on importing country is available upon discharge. The data has been provided since 01.09.2022 and is updated automatically. Data for the current month is shown as a cumulative total.
Export destinations are completely determined by the geographical location of Australia. The structure of importers of Australian LNG is dominated by China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan (province of China).
For China, Australia is the leading supplier of LNG to China - 23 million tons in 2024 (35% market share). China receives more gas only from Russia, but taking into account pipeline gas (equivalent to LNG - 27 million tons). The structuring of the global LNG market strongly depends on Sino-Australian relations.
For Japan, Australia is also the number one supplier - the same 23 million tons in 2024.
Regasification of LNG
The strategic challenge for the Australian LNG industry continues to be domestic policy requirements to prioritize the needs of the domestic natural gas market over LNG exports.
Key gas fields are located in the north-west of Australia. The largest cities and most industrial centers are in the southeast. The national system of internal gas pipelines is relatively undeveloped. To reduce the risks of energy supply to the most populated regions of southeastern Australia during peak demand periods, construction and coordination of the construction of four floating regasification terminals with a total capacity of 12 million tons of LNG per year is underway. The main purpose of these terminals is to cover peak demand in winter (April - November). The current dates for the terminals' commissioning are 2025-2026, but these dates have been constantly shifting to the right since their initial discussions in 2022.
The construction and planning of the construction of the following terminals is underway:
Port Phillip,
Outer Harbor,
Kembala,
Geelong.
Notes:
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