Capital
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Australia is more exposed than most advanced economies to diesel price and supply shocks, CommBank head of commodities and sustainable economics Vivek Dhar said calling out Australia’s relatively small reserves and the impact of Brent crude prices that are now expected to rise to US$120 to US$150 per barrel given that the Iran conflict is set to continue longer than originally thought.
Indeed, Australia is the only one of 32 signatories to the IEA treaty on oil reserves that does not maintain 90 days’ worth of oil reserves, and Australia’s failure to comply with the Minimum Stockholding Obligation extends back to 2012.
Iran now sees Persian Gulf area facilities as “direct and legitimate targets”, in a ramping up of the country’s rhetoric that comes after yesterday's Israeli strike on South Pars. An irate US President Donald Trump to warn he will “massively blow up” all of South Pars if Iran attacks Qatar again. Undeterred, Iranian regional governor Eskandar Pasalar said the conflict has escalated into a “full-scale economic war.” Overnight, six nations, including Australian allies Britain, France, Germany and Japan, said they were ready “to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz”.
Policy
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NSW has become the first state to ban new coal mines, spelling out the policy in its NSW Coal Industry 2026-50 report, laying out a 25-year vision for coal in NSW. The policy change will see the NSW government prohibit future greenfield coal development; relinquish government-held coal exploration titles; abolish the Strategic Release Framework for coal; and continue to support applications for coal exploration adjacent to existing exploration and mining licenses. The Mining and Energy Union called the ban on new mines “disappointing” but welcomed the report’s provision of clarity for workers.
The federal government is mulling reforms to the Petroleum Resources Rent Tax (PRRT) and introducing a new tax on windfall gas company profits, according to the ABC. A document prepared by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C), asked Treasury to model "new levy options" and also requests options to reform corporate income tax.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese has appointed Anthea Harris, formerly the CEO of the AER and CEO of the Energy Security Board, to a new role as Fuel Supply Taskforce coordinator. Harris will support governments’ work to ensure Australia is, as Albanese put it, “overprepared and quick to respond” to fuel and other challenges stemming from the current Iran conflict. The Taskforce will sit within the Department of the Prime Minister & Cabinet; facilitate coordination on fuel security and supply chain resilience across state, territory and federal governments; update policymakers about the current fuel supply outlook and domestic fuel distribution; and act as a single convening point for fuel supply and forward planning to get fuel to the regions where it’s needed. The appointment was announced during the PM’s extraordinary National Cabinet meeting, at which leaders exhorted Australians to “consider others in need and not to over-buy” concluding that Australia “is in a good position at present and does not have an overall fuel shortage at this time.”
Meanwhile, WA bulk fuel supplier Vibe Petroleum has begun rationing sales of fuel, imposing a limit of 100L of fuel per customer for bulk purchases using external fuel containers. The move affects over 50 service stations across the state.
 Projects
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The inauguration of northern Victoria’s 108MW Lancaster Solar Farm marks a significant step for European Energy, which has contracted the supply from the farm to Apple under a long-term power purchase agreement. European Energy has a development pipeline of 10GW of solar, onshore wind and battery energy storage system (BESS) projects within Australia.
DCCEEW is inviting comments on the proposed Murchs Corner BESS, a 500MW/2GWh site that will connect to Victoria’s existing 500kV Moorabool to Mortlake transmission line. Comments on the 13ha facility are due by April 1.
Data centre giant AirTrunk has contracted two energy infrastructure firms in a $300 million deal to build a large-scale BESS adjacent to its 320MW/1.28GWh SYD3 data centre, which is being built in western Sydney and is expected to be the Asia-Pacific region’s largest data centre when it goes live next year.
The proposed 780MW Supernode BESS, to be located in Woodstock south of Townsville, has been waved through environmental approvals after a determination that its construction is not a controlled action.
DCCEEW has opened for comment a proposed Robertstown, South Australia BESS, which will comprise a 500MW/2GWh system constructed in two individually financed and contracted stages in support of the existing 500MW PV solar farm. Comment is open until March 31.
Regulation
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The AER has published a consultation paper seeking feedback on its draft Retailer of Last Resort (RoLR) guidelines and plan. Changes in this version include updates to cost recovery guidance; an approach to taking up to 72 hours to designate an additional RoLR; and an additional data requirement designed to address “strong concerns” about the quality of customer data provided by failed retailers to RoLRs. Submissions close April 17.
The AEMC released a consultation paper seeking feedback on improving compensation frameworks, which consolidates three previous rule change requests from AEMO and Tilt Renewables – which proposed changes to compensation frameworks, allocation of capacity directions costs for consumers, and the imposition of a $0/MWh price floor on spot prices to compensate participants for scheduling errors. Submissions are due on April 30.
Technology
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Global towage operator Svitzer has signed an MoU with the Australia’s largest container port, the Port of Melbourne, to explore the use of electric tugboats throughout the port area, and deployment of related clean-energy infrastructure – including a dedicated renewable energy microgrid and high-capacity charging infrastructure – required to operate them. Also joining the effort are Plexar Energy and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP).
Climate
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Biomass carbon removal (biomass CDR) technologies promise carbon storage “for centuries or longer” but widespread flaws in the protocols governing their operation is impacting the carbon market system, according to a new Clean Air Task Force (CATF) report. CATF offers six recommendations to improve governance in the carbon removal industry, including adopting the established definition of ‘carbon removal’, prescribing conservative estimates for supply chain removals when project-specific data are not available, improving consistency across protocols, and more.
People
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Gordon Chakaodza has been appointed as co-director of Swinburne University of Technology’s Franco-Australian Indo-Pacific Centre for Energy Transition (FACET), an Australia-France climate change partnership that was established in 2023 to promote cooperation on sustainable and inclusive energy initiatives.
Bloomberg has appointed Albert Cheung as CEO of BloombergNEF (BNEF), following current BNEF CEO Jon Moore's announcement that he will retire in April after 12 years in the role.
