From a piece on Australian Liquid Natural Gas projects under construction in Australia:
- Currently 6 LNG projects under construction in Australia (3 projects in the pipeline, 3 in production)
- According to the International Energy Agency, all of these projects would lose money at the current oil price of USD47/barrel("bbl"), and most would struggle even with oil at USD60/bbl.
- I suspect that oil would have to approach USD100/bbl again to provide an acceptable return on capital invested.
- Global LNG supply is rapidly increasing, while demand growth is slowing
- New, large natural gas discoveries will also put pressure on prices over the longer term
The writer's conclusion:
Australian LNG is a risky investment space. It is also risky for some industry executives, just ask sacked Santos CEO David Knox. One of the reasons for project underperformance is that Australia is a very high cost economy. LNG projects in PNG, on the other hand, look much more viable.
h/t to Business Insider for this one
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Opposing thoughts, anyone?