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Energy security

This Month

The offshore wind industry will require significant supporting infrastructure for transporting and installing large turbines.

Victoria walks back timetable for key Gippsland wind infrastructure

In a delayed update, the state removed references to when a marine supply base was expected to be operational and dropped details of offtake contract auctions.

Opposition leader Peter Dutton visited BlueScope Steel in Erskine Park in the division of McMahon.

No extra gas for domestic market under Dutton plan: industry

The sector has changed its criticism of the Coalition’s energy policy from complaining it would create a glut, to arguing it would create a shortfall.

A Japanese LNG tanker at a JERA thermal power station in greater Tokyo.

Japan warns on Dutton’s gas reservation policy

A Tokyo think tank says limiting sales into the regional spot market could “handicap” Australian producers and trim Japanese trading in South-East Asia.

CSIRO modelling taking into account the Coalition’s criticism still showed nuclear energy was more expensive than renewables.

‘Doesn’t stack up’: Top investors go cold on nuclear

New data shows Australia’s top asset managers have little interest in investing in atomic energy generation.

Opposition resources spokeswoman Susan McDonald at the Australian Domestic Gas Outlook conference on Wednesday.

Gas to qualify as ‘critical mineral’ under Coalition

Natural gas would rank alongside lithium in being eligible for funding from the $4 billion critical minerals facility, shadow resources minister Susan McDonald said.

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Beach Energy’s Brett Woods at the Australian Domestic Gas Outlook conference in Sydney.

Gas policy ‘taken over by activists’: Beach CEO

Brett Woods also took aim at politicians opposing local gas supply projects that are forcing the industry towards more emissions intensive and expensive imports.

Korea and Malaysia have invested about $14 billion in Santos’ GLNG export venture.

Korean giant strikes out at gas intervention

Kogas has questioned whether it can still rely on its contracts to buy Australian LNG, given mounting government intervention in the domestic gas market.

March

Dutton delivers his budget reply speech in the House of Representatives.

Santos breaks ranks on Dutton’s gas plan

The gas producer looks set to emerge as a winner under the Coalition’s gas policy, despite it being widely blamed for the risk of shortages on the east coast.

The ACCC says gas exporters should be encouraged to prioritise domestic supply.

Record winter gas shortfall is coming: ACCC

Ensuring Queensland’s LNG exporters divert unsold gas to the local market will be critical to avoid supply shocks, the watchdog said.

Amplitude Energy CEO Jane Norman pointed to strong interest in the gas from potential industrial customers.

Victorian energy shortage fears drive $400m investment in gas venture

Buyer interest and higher prices provide confidence in what is the largest new project in the south-east, said Amplitude Energy chief executive Jane Norman.

LNG imports may not be needed until later this decade under AEMO’s latest gas outlook.

Winter gas threat pushed out but shortages loom

The energy market operator expects winter gas shortages to hit Victoria in 2028 and predicts a serious energy shock without new investment. Queensland says it will keep coal-fired power stations open longer.

Victoria’s mainstay of gas supply, the Bass Strait fields, are now depleting rapidly.

Looming threat to curb Queensland LNG exports spurs new drilling

The concern among Queensland’s LNG exporters about a crackdown on Asian sales contract renewals is pushing them to drill for new gas to supply domestic customers.

Transgrid CEO Brett Redman at the CEDA function in Sydney.

Transgrid seeks government support for vital $700m grid investment

Transgrid CEO Brett Redman says the company needs NSW government and regulatory support to proceed with investments without blowing-up its credit rating.

Energy Minister Chris Bowen.

Consumers trapped by rising cost of energy failure and power bills

Power prices will be a key election topic as Labor sells the benefits of renewables and the Coalition insists nuclear offers the only affordable answer. But under both plans, it’s customers who will pay.

An EV made by Volkswagen outside the Northvolt factory in Skelleftea, Sweden.

Europe’s biggest battery hope Northvolt files for bankruptcy in Sweden

The Swedish company boasted $US10 billion in funding and was set to challenge China’s electric vehicle battery dominance. Instead, it has collapsed.

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ConocoPhillips is one of the biggest energy companies in the world, and is proposing to explore for gas in the Bass Strai.

Massive gas drilling program approved in Bass Strait

ConocoPhillips’ junior partner in the venture said it was “very unusual to see a drilling program of this size”.

February

Genex Power’s Kidston pumped hydro project in North Queensland.

‘Big water battery’ wins backing in NSW storage tender

The success of a $1.8 billion project near Mudgee in a NSW underwriting tender for clean energy comes amid mounting evidence that pumped hydro can be difficult and costly.

EnergyAustralia’s Yallourn Power Station in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley is due to close in mid-2008.

EnergyAustralia owner would rather contract green power than build it

Parent CLP Group is “open-minded” about funding options for transition projects at EnergyAustralia, which needs to be self-funding, CEO Chiang Tung Keung says.

The pumped hydro project is planned at Lake Borumba south of Gympie in Queensland.

Qld may shrink $18.4b hydro project to save venture

The Crisafulli government is considering scaling down the Borumba storage project after a blowout in costs in latest setback to Queensland’s energy transition.

Both Australia and Canada have much in common including being highly urbanised, services-driven, and dependent on international trade as a source of growth and continued economic prosperity.

Here’s why Australia-Canada ties matter more than ever

Challenges abound as the Trump administration aims to rewrite global trade rules.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/energy-security-hxb