OREANDA-NEWS. Australia may export LNG to Europe if issues over supply security persist, Western Australia premier Colin Barnett said at the LNG 18 conference in Perth.

None of Australia's seven operating LNG projects or the three still under construction have any sales and purchase agreements (SPAs) with European buyers. Shell, which is building the 3.6mn t/yr Prelude floating LNG (FLNG) project offshore Western Australia, operates under a portfolio system and has not detailed its SPAs.

"I expect there will be some spot sales going to Europe, which has had problems with gas supplies in the past as some of the gas pipelines into Europe have been turned off and this has made security of supply an issue. I think there is strong confidence that Australia is a secure supplier," Barnett said.

Nearly all of Australia's LNG is shipped to Asia-Pacific. There are further opportunities in the region's power generation market, Barnett said, as there will be more pressure to switch from the use of coal to lower-emissions fuels in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions following the Paris climate agreement reached in December.

About 65pc of Western Australia's power is generated by gas-fired plants. This is well above the average of around 20pc for Australia as a whole.

Only 10pc of power is generated by gas-fired plants in Asia-Pacific, with the average falling to 5pc in China and India, Barnett said. Western Australia is the country's largest LNG producing state thanks to the 16.3mn t/yr North West Shelf LNG, 15.6mn t/yr Gorgon LNG and 4.3mn t/yr Pluto LNG projects. The planned 8.9mn t/yr Wheatstone LNG Prelude FLNG projects are also located in the state.

All of the state's LNG projects use gas from the Carnarvon basin with the exception of Prelude, which is located in the Browse basin to the northeast of the Carnarvon basin.

Barnett does not see any further LNG projects being developed in the Carnarvon basin, but said the Browse basin is underexplored. The only other LNG project located in the Browse basin is the 8.4mn t/yr Ichthys LNG venture, which is constructing a near-1,000km pipeline to Darwin in the Northern Territory where its liquefaction plant is located.