Woodside Energy has shipped an LNG cargo to Europe on board the Woodside Rees Withers from Australia’s North West Shelf and delivered it to Uniper Global Commodities SE (Uniper).
The cargo of approximately 75,000 tonnes of LNG (100 million cubic meters of natural gas) was delivered on November 27, 2022, to the Gate Terminal located on Maasvlakte in Rotterdam, and will contribute to natural gas supply in Northwest and Central Europe.
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Almost all LNG from Australia goes to Asia, with rare shipments going to South America. In August, amid Europe’s hunt for gas to replace Russian supply, an Australian cargo was transferred onto a ship in Malaysian waters to go to Britain.
Woodside executive vice president marketing and trading Mark Abbotsford said the company was pleased to have concluded the trade at a time when Europe is in urgent need of alternative sources of gas to replace Russian pipeline supplies.
“Events over the course of 2022 have shown that the world cannot take reliable and affordable supplies of energy for granted, particularly as we strive to decarbonise.
“At such times it is more important than ever that buyers and sellers work together to flexibly respond to market dynamics. Our relationship with Uniper is an example of such cooperation.
“The delivery of a North West Shelf LNG cargo to Europe also highlights the role that Australian LNG can play in supporting global energy security,” he said.
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Uniper director of LNG Andreas Gemballa said, “We continue to work on securing the much needed gas supply into Europe from reliable sources like Australia and thus helping to strengthen security of supply during the ongoing crisis triggered by the Russian war.
“In addition to bringing online floating storage and regasification units in Germany, we are contracting LNG from diversified sources into existing and new regasification capacity in Europe. Woodside as a reliable supplier is helping us to bring additional LNG to Europe.”
