Chile gets first Australian LNG cargo

Chile has received its first cargo of liquefied natural gas from Australia, according to the energy consultancy EnergyQuest.

The 173,400-cbm Sevilla Knutsen loaded the cargo at Shell’s Queensland Curtis LNG terminal in Gladstone late July.

Following a 24-day voyage of over 13,500 nautical miles, the vessel docked at the Enagas-controlled Quintero LNG terminal in Chile on August 15.

Worth mentioning here, prior to becoming a part of Shell, BG Group sold its 40 percent stake in the Chilean facility to the Spanish LNG terminal operator Enagas.

The 8 mtpa QCLNG plant mainly sends cargoes to China and Japan as its two other shareholders are CNOOC and Tokyo Gas.

On the other side, Chile’s Quintero mostly imports LNG cargoes from the Atlantic Basin.

“In 2019 it imported cargoes from the US, Trinidad Tobago and Equatorial Guinea so a cargo from Australia is unusual and shows the degree of oversupply in Asia,” EnergyQuest said in a report.