PLATTS - National Australia Bank announced Thursday it will no longer provide financing for new thermal coal projects.

The S&P/ASX 200 Energy index added 0.7 per cent, with Beach Energy – the recent buyer of Origin Energy’s conventional oil and gas business assets – up 2.8 per cent, Origin up 1.1 per cent and Caltex Australia up 1 per cent.

Australia became the world’s second-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 2015 and is likely to overtake Qatar as the world’s largest LNG exporter by 2019. As Australia’s LNG exports have increased, primarily from LNG projects in eastern Australia, the country has had natural gas supply shortages in eastern and southeastern Australia and an increase in domestic natural gas prices.

Wheatstone, co-owned by Australia’s Woodside Petroleum, Kuwait Foreign Exploration Co and Japan’s Kyushu Electric Power Co, has two gas liquefaction units, which at full capacity will supply 8.9 million metric tonnes of LNG a year to customers in Asia.

Australia's LNG exports in fiscal 2017-2018 (July-June) will be 63 million mt, after it crossed, for the first time, 50 million mt in fiscal 2016-2017, energy consultancy EnergyQuest said in its forecast on Wednesday.

Among China's LNG suppliers Australia has fared best, with imports rising 42.7 percent in the first five months to 5.39 million tonnes, almost double that of second-placed Qatar at 2.84 million tonnes.

Australia is set to apply LNG export controls, aimed at securing domestic supply of gas and keeping prices of the fuel in check, from January 1, the government announced earlier this week despite industry warnings about the decision's potential impact on energy investment.

“The rampant cost inflation on Australian projects combined with the collapse in oil prices is damaging for a lot of these projects,” said Neil Beveridge, analyst at Bernstein. LNG prices have been affected by a supply glut and are also linked to oil prices in Asia.

The three facilities have the combined capacity to supply 25mn mt/yr of LNG –equal to about 8% of the world’s production, Bechtel said October 11.

Amid all the gloom inflicted by adverse market conditions, intense focus on efficiency improvement emerges as a bright underlying theme. With oil prices now $50./b after hitting a low of $27 a barrel in January, the expectation is that some stability may finally be returning to the market. Higher oil price is certainly a positive for producers.