Plants with benefits
Once Australia has digested its massive liquified natural gas building programme, costs could fall and productivity rise
Collaboration is the new buzzword in Australia's LNG industry, where construction cost blowouts and lengthy delays in getting new facilities up and running have coincided with a supply glut and slumping spot prices in Asia-Pacific to make Australian LNG just about the most expensive around. Despite the country's efforts to overtake Qatar as the world's largest LNG exporter by 2018, the future of its gas-export industry is far from rosy. Demand in northeast Asia - Australia's key export destination - is unlikely to rebound until next decade and growth in southeast Asian markets is similarly timed. The glut is leading some contracted buyers of Australian LNG to renegotiate the price and le
Also in this section
13 March 2026
Brussels is again weighing a cap on gas prices amid the Hormuz crisis, but the measure could backfire by deterring the LNG cargoes Europe urgently needs
12 March 2026
Emergency oil stocks provide a last line of defence to oil market shocks, so the IEA’s unprecedented 400m bl release represents something of a double-edged sword
12 March 2026
LPG could rapidly expand access to clean cooking across Africa and prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths from indoor air pollution each year, but infrastructure shortages and regulatory barriers are slowing investment and market growth
11 March 2026
Missiles over Dubai and disruption in Hormuz are testing the emirate’s reputation—and shaking the energy hub at the centre of the Gulf economy
