AUSTRALIA exported record volumes of liquefied natural gas last year despite outages at key projects, even exceeding Qatar’s designed output.

Exports from the resource-rich country reached 78m tonnes, surpassing nameplate capacity of the giant Rasgas complex in the Middle East, according to an estimate from Australia-focused consultancy EnergyQuest.

LNG production at Chevron’s Gorgon LNG complex on Barrow Island in Western Australia was disrupted by unscheduled repair work from May.

The energy giant also faced downtime at its Wheatstone LNG project also off Western Australia, which was hit by faults at an offshore production facility.

Shell’s Prelude floating LNG off the country’s northwest coast also went offline from February because of an electrical trip and recommenced operation only in late December.

Production downtime at these major projects did not hold back expansion of Western Australia’s  LNG output, however.

The state, which accounted for more than half of Australia’s LNG exports last year, pumped 43.7m tonnes of output last year, up 5% year on year.

But the Northern Territory, as home state to the Darwin LNG terminal, recorded the biggest jump of 11% in LNG production.

The east coast state of Queensland, as host to three large-scale projects, achieved record production of 22.6m tonnes, albeit up only 1% from the previous year.

Australia would have derived A$36.13bn ($27.23bn) in revenue from its LNG exports last year, down 26% due to lower prices for the commodity, according to EnergyQuest’s estimate.

Asia JKM benchmark prices for LNG spot trades fell to a record low price of just over $1.80 per million British thermal units during the summer of 2020.

Reflecting on a dramatic comeback for the LNG trade, however, EnergyQuest flagged the possibility of higher Australia exports by volume and revenue this year should prices and demand hold up.

JKM prices were assessed at over $32 per mmBtu last week, reflecting the effect among others, of record deals tied to Australia’s export projects.

Leading pricing agency S&P Global Platts noted that ExxonMobil has sold a Gorgon spot cargo at low to mid $30s to a Japanese power utility for prompt delivery during the week of January 21 to January 28.

Platts also flagged a recent bid from Trafigura for two separate cargoes from Total at $36.05 per mmBtu and $39.30 per mmBtu for delivery in early and mid-February.

Total owns an equity share in the Inpex-operated Ichthys project exporting through the Darwin LNG terminal.