LNG

Australia Pacific LNG, the third coal-seam-gas-to-LNG plant constructed on Curtis Island in Queensland and whose shareholders are ConocoPhillips, China's Sinopec and local operator Origin Energy, has shipped its first cargo into the Asian market where current prices of around $7.50 per million British thermal units barely cover the high costs of development, production and shipping.

Dutch utility Gasunie, the owner with Vopak of Rotterdam's Gate LNG import terminal, said that from mid-2016 small-scale LNG carriers would be able to load cargoes from the new break-bulk jetty currently under construction for distribution to other Northwest European ports.

Canada's National Energy Board has awarded its first 40-year liquefied natural gas export licence to the Royal Dutch Shell-led joint venture with three Asian companies, including PetroChina.

Ghana is well on track to become sub-Saharan Africa's first LNG importer, possibly as early as June 2016, from a floating facility to be deployed at the port of Tema in the West African nation.