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Energy

Today

Alinta Energy operates Loy Yang B in Victoria, one of the country’s biggest coal power plants.

KKR taps advisors, preps multi-billion dollar bid for Alinta Energy

KKR’s dealmakers have hired investment bank Barrenjoey for advice and have spent the past two months working on a proposal for Alinta Energy.

  • 28 mins ago
  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Origin Energy CEO Frank Calabria.

Origin CEO calls for focus on ‘critical’ energy security

Frank Calabria’s comments came as Origin posted a small beat in first-half earnings but downgraded expected full-year profits from fast-growing Octopus Energy in the UK.

  • 1 hr ago
  • Angela Macdonald-Smith

Chevron to slash 20pc of global work force in cost-cutting push

The US oil giant’s plans could affect as many as 9000 employees, as it targets as much as $4.8 billion of structural cost reductions by 2026.

  • Kevin Crowley

Yesterday

AGL Energy chief executive Damian Nicks at the company’s SA batteries project. The battery, and another in NSW, added $17 million to the company’s bottom line in the first half of the financial year.

AGL prepares a big battery bet to capitalise on energy volatility

The electricity and gas utility says returns are rising on storage projects as it prepares to tick off an estimated $1.5 billion spending plan over 18 months.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith

This Month

D-Day looms for Woodside’s massive North West Shelf gas project

It’s either crucial to energy security, or a climate disaster in the making. Labor will have to decide whether to let the LNG operation run another 50 years.

  • Mark Wembridge, Angela Macdonald-Smith and Tom Rabe
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Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher, SA Premier Peter Malinauskas, Federal Trade Minister Don Farrell and Beach Energy CEO Brett Woods at the Moomba CCS opening on January 31.

Australia is throwing away a $600b carbon capture opportunity

Australia is rapidly losing ground in carbon capture and storage, putting at risk the net zero emissions by 2050 and forfeiting a $600 billion opportunity.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Santos’ 2017 Dassault Falcon has been sold to a US buyer.

Santos’ Kevin Gallagher ejected from the private jet club

The oil and gas giant has sold its 10-seater Dassault Falcon to a US buyer, just as quietly as it bought it originally.

  • Hannah Wootton
The Wellington solar farm in NSW is one of the five that Beijing Energy International wants to buy.

FIRB delays leave $800m renewable energy sale on the brink of collapse

Lightsource bp said it was “considering all options” after failing to secure approval to sell a major portfolio of assets to a Chinese government-backed firm.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Lightsource BP’s Aussie portfolio includes NSW’s Wellington solar farm.

FIRB delays kill Lightsource BP’s $800m-plus solar farm sale

Lightsource BP’s sale of five Aussie solar farms to Chinese-owned BJEI has collapsed after hitting the ‘drop-dead’ date for FIRB approvals.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill.

Too late to avert energy crisis in Victoria, CEOs warn

The heads of Woodside Energy and Beach Energy say the Victorian Labor government has spent more than a decade demonising gas as a transition fuel.

  • Patrick Durkin and Angela Macdonald-Smith

Carlyle acquires majority stake in SA battery in $200m financing deal

Carlyle’s investment comes as Amp Energy hits financial close on the project financing for Bungama’s first stage, which required $200 million of the battery’s total $350 million projected capex.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
The Albany Grasmere wind farm in Western Australia is among assets being acquired by Potentia Energy.

Major global investors swoop on Cbus and CVC’s $1b green portfolio

The wind and solar projects spread across the country will be acquired by Potentia Energy, backed by heavyweight Italian and Japanese utilities groups.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Beach Energy’s Waitsia gas project in Western Australia is running late.

Beach CEO doubles down on gas strategy amid heightening Vic crisis

Brett Woods has said several parties are interested in joining Beach for power generation after the company disappointed the market with its dividend and outlook.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
LNG trade flows to China are expected to be impacted by the tariffs on US imports.

China’s US LNG tariffs heat up east coast gas concerns

Worries about impacts from tariffs come as Woodside boss Meg O’Neill warns Trump administration’s moves pile pressure on Australia to lift its competitiveness.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith
Project EnergyConnect (pictured)

Why Transgrid’s $4.1b EnergyConnect is a huge problem

The massive cost blowout of Australia’s largest energy transmission project will come at the expense of energy consumers.

  • Ted Woodley
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The Kwinana heavy industrial area south of Perth started with BP refining oil in 1955.

WA Labor calls for federal support to revive BP green fuel project

The Albanese government must do more to support Western Australia’s fledgling biofuels industry, Premier Roger Cook says.

  • Tom Rabe
BP will

BP puts its $600m Perth clean fuel refinery plans on ice

The British petroleum giant had expected to decide on the development later this year, but said on Monday that it would delay work on the project.

  • Tom Rabe
Michel van Maanen, CEO of Nexport, the largest electric bus supplier to the NSW government.

Carlyle flags down EV bus outfit GoZero for $200m debt deal

Sources said the pair are working on terms for a $200 million-plus debt facility which would see Carlyle join its lending pool for the first time.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Severe storms swept across Victoria including Phillip Island, leaving more than 45,000 homes and businesses without power amid a heatwave.

Frustrated Sims warned Victoria on gas shortages a decade ago

The former ACCC head says his warnings to Victorian Labor were ignored, as wild storms in the state left more than 45,000 homes and businesses without power. 

  • Patrick Durkin
The Wellington solar farm will take up two-thirds of the battery’s capacity.

Stonepeak-backed Ampyr buys Shell’s stake in NSW battery

Of note, Ampyr Australia is actively hunting through M&A as well as organic opportunities as it aims for a 3GW battery portfolio by 2030.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

January

Woodside’s Louisiana LNG site.

Why Trump’s ‘drill, baby, drill’ mantra won’t work in Australia

The US president’s rationale that cheaper gas will power a manufacturing renaissance and reduce household bills can’t be applied to fix the energy woes here.

  • Tony Wood
NextDC chief executive Craig Scroggie says DeepSeek, or other more efficient AI models would still ultimately use the same amount of power overall.

DeepSeek dents outlook for AI-fuelled power boom

NextDC’s CEO says data centre power use will not fall after US energy stocks were smashed by expectations DeepSeek will pierce AI-fuelled electricity demand.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith and Paul Smith
Mike Lazelle, Dustin Murdock and Robert Turner founded Kwetta in 2021.

Blackbird leads fundraising round for EV ultra-fast charging start-up

NZ start-up Kwetta is chasing global growth after banking equity cheques from Blackbird, Virescent Ventures and Icehouse Ventures.

  • Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill.

Woodside chooses timidity for the sake of short-term shareholder gains

Readers’ letters on companies withdrawing from clean energy projects, ASX diversity reporting, Donald Trump’s climate policy, and debate over gender choices.

Shale wells drilled by Santos in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin.

Santos eyes Darwin LNG expansion with Beetaloo gas

The plan could offer a lower-cost export avenue for gas from the remote Northern Territory region but remains tentative and in its early stages.

  • Angela Macdonald-Smith

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/companies/energy