Slipping schedules in Australia

Weak prices and a glut of supply are delaying some Australian LNG supply

The country's share of liquefied natural gas supply to Asia is continuing to grow as new export facilities in Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory are completed and start raising production capacity. But with a saturated Asian buyers' market and low oil prices hurting profitability, ramp-up timelines are slipping at some projects and the outlook for expansion or new projects is bleak. Australia is now the world's second-largest LNG exporter after Qatar and will become the world's leading exporter by 2020. According to the country's Office of the Chief Economist (OCE), another 15m tonnes a year of export capacity is expected to be completed by mid-2017, including second an