#Australia may be the next #LNG leader

Australia could surpass Qatar as the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas by the end of the decade, experts say.

Australian oil and gas major Woodside’s $15.1 billion Pluto LNG project, scheduled to deliver its first shipment this month, adds a "third leg" to Australia’s resources boom which has been fueled by exports of coal and iron ore, the Financial Times reports.

The project will process gas from the Pluto and Xena gas fields in Western Australia, estimated to contain 4.8 trillion cubic feet of dry gas reserves.

Pluto is underpinned by 15-year sales agreements with Japan’s Kansai Electric and Tokyo Gas, both of which became project participants in January 2008, each acquiring a 5 percent interest.

Australia now has under construction 70 percent of the world’s LNG capacity, capable of supporting 40-50 years of production, says Australia’s Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics.

Those projects – seven in total, not counting Pluto – together total $175 billion in committed LNG investment, Australian federal resources and energy minister Martin Ferguson said at last month’s Energy State of the Nation Forum in Sydney.

Yet Australia’s LNG sector isn’t without challenges, including strict regulations and rising project costs. Woodside’s Pluto, for example, was originally targeted for production last year and incurred $900 million in additional costs, International Business Times reports.

To read the full article, click here.

The LNG Outlook Australasia conference will be happening on the 19-21 November 2012, It will discuss investment and development for international gas buyers and Australian producers. For more information, click here.