Australia exported a record volume of 51.4 million tonnes of LNG during the 2016-17 financial year, according to figures just released by energy consultancy EnergyQuest, Adelaide. It is the first time the country has broken the 50-million-tonne export barrier. The figure also is a 37% increase on the 2015-16 LNG export volume of 37.5 million tonnes. EnergyQuest forecasts higher-still exports in the next financial year, 2017-18, suggesting that the volume will reach 63 million tonnes by midyear 2018 with increases expected from Gorgon and the start of Wheatstone next month, plus Ichthys coming on stream in 2018. Sales for the 2017-18 year have been estimated at $22.3 billion (Aus.), which is a 29% increase on the $16.6 billion for the previous year. EnergyQuest says that production volumes increased in virtually every Australian LNG export project. The exceptions were Darwin LNG, which was down 900,000 tonnes, and BG Group’s Queensland […]