Australian oil and gas industry continues to break records

Australia has achieved record petroleum production in the 2019 financial year, passing one billion barrels for the first time.

It came off the back of an increase of 16 per cent year on year, replicated in gas production too, which reached 5082 petajoules throughout the same period, according to EnergyQuest’s quarterly report.

The output was driven by record east coast and Western Australian gas production, which were both up two per cent respectively.

Australia’s liquified natural gas (LNG) production also continued to surge throughout the period, up 22 per cent to 75 million tonnes or 4070 petajoules.

This included a second quarter production of 19.3 million tonnes, which is set to significantly rise in the third quarter this year.

Since the end of June, the Ichthys gas field has hit almost 100 per cent capacity, while Prelude has started shipping about one cargo every week, which contributed to the growth.

As such, Australian LNG exports accounted for 23 per cent of the global market from January to August followed by the United States, which accounted for 10 per cent.

While LNG revenue was up 25 per cent quarter on quarter to $11.3 billion, the charmed run of Australian projects in terms of export prices came to an end in the second quarter of this year.

After seven consecutive years of increase, the Australian average LNG price dropped sharply from $13.42 per gigajoule in the first quarter to $10.64 in the second quarter.

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