Liquefied natural gas is expected to overtake iron ore as the main driver of energy exports from Australia with annual shipments surging to more than A$50 billion by the year 2020 – according to Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.

Australia in race for global LNG dominance

Australia is also expected to take on Qatar and emerge as the world`s biggest supplier of LNG by 2018.

The contribution of LNG to Australia`s economic growth will overtake iron ore in 2016 and peak around 2017.

“There are a number of benefits for Australia,” Felicity Emmett, co-head of Australian economics at the bank announced. “However, it`s not all good news.”

Investment in new LNG processing plants is declining, with the number of workers required on projects falling as current LNG processing plants end the construction phase and move into production.

It’s thought that much of Australian LNG will head overseas because of the foreign ownership of these projects. It’s estimated some 90 percent of the LNG facilities are overseas owned which will see much of the profits flowing overseas.

Chevron Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell are some of the international companies developing Australian CSG-LNG projects to tap into the growing demand for LNG from Asia.

Curtis Island LNG

An example of this is the development of the Curtis Island LNG terminals by Conoco Philips and British Gas, to name a few.

Three huge LNG trains have been built on the island off Gladstone, where coal seam gas from the coal fields of the Surat Basin in Queensland has been tapped and piped over hundreds of kilometres to be processed, cooled into a liquid state.

When the liquification process is complete, specially designed ships transport the LNG to destinations across the globe.