(Bloomberg) — A shipment of Australian liquefied natural gas appears to be heading to Europe for the first time since 2022, a rare move that highlights the region’s need to pull in more seaborne deliveries to replace the loss of Russian pipeline fuel.
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The Elisa Ardea vessel, which recently docked at the Wheatstone LNG export project in western Australia, is signaling the Dunkirk port in France as its next location, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.
The vessel’s draft, which is registered manually by the ship, didn’t change after leaving Wheatstone, which means it may not be carrying a cargo of gas. And it isn’t guaranteed that the ship will complete the long journey to France.
The loss of Russian pipeline gas via Ukraine since the start of the year is boosting European demand for LNG. Traders are diverting shipments away from Asia to Europe, where prices are at a two-year high.
Asian demand has been lackluster so far this year, with importers cutting spot purchases. And plummeting freight rates means that it is more economical for LNG ships to take longer journeys if the price is right.
The last time an Australian LNG shipment was received in Europe was in November 2022, according to Bloomberg data, after spot prices rose to an all-time high following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Australia shipped all of its LNG to Asia last year, ship data shows.
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