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Hey Reader, welcome to The Energy.
In today's edition:
- Abu Dhabi state oil company rolls dice for Santos
- Green taxonomy surfaces
- Solar for apartments group raises £5m
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Interest in Santos flares as Abu Dhabi state oil co rolls dice
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) has booked itself an examination by the Foreign Investment Review and other regulators after agreeing a $30 billion takeover deal with Santos, Australia’s second largest oil and gas company.
The deal shows the confidence of established oil and gas players in future demand for gas as a “transition fuel” needed to firm wind and solar energy on the world’s journey to net zero emissions.
But this also points to a paradox, said energy program director at The Grattan Institute Tony Wood: “There's going to be a role for gas, but there's going to be problems – I mean, obviously at some point we're going to start stopping using gas,” Wood said.
Rystad analysts noted that ADNOC — bidding via its XRG venture with private equity group Carlyle — is targeting growth to 20-25 million tonnes per annum of LNG business by 2035, and Santos's 5MTPA (and up tp 8MTPA by decade's end) would give it a firm foothold on this journey.
"The key hurdle now is regulatory. FIRB scrutiny will be intense given the state-owned nature of ADNOC, sensitivities around gas exports, and a political backdrop shaped by AUKUS and strategic infrastructure concerns."
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Expert view
"The biggest issue, if I were to guess, would be that Santos is the Australian partner to one of the three LNG joint ventures in Queensland. And it's the Santos one that has been most criticized for sucking gas out of the domestic market.
“What the Australian government would be concerned about, you'd think, would be, are they going to continue with the Australian based resources in particular? Are they going to be a responsible exporter of gas from Queensland?”
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Tony Wood
Energy program director, The Grattan Institute
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Tailor-made taxonomy for transition capital
A classification system for green and transition finance, tailored to Australia’s economy, should provide financial institutions and businesses the framework they need to assess green claims and invest in projects that genuinely advance net zero.
Although voluntary, it also sets expectations for engagement with Traditional Owners and cultural heritage management.
Releasing the taxonomy, Australian Sustainable Finance Institute (ASFI) CEO Kristy Graham said it reflected deep technical input and 20 months of engagement across the finance sector, industry and civil society, with strategic oversight from Treasury and financial regulators.
Clean Energy Finance Corporation CEO Ian Learmonth expected it to build confidence in Australia's transition to net zero in international markets, helping to mobilise investment into decarbonising sectors.
An eight-month pilot program, supported by guidance on green bond issuance and a common language, aims to increase the size of the investment pool and Australia’s ranking in the US$1.1 trillion market.
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Expert view
"We covered off on six sectors - the same six sectors that the government has committed to putting out sector decarbonisation plans for - and I think they align, because these are the sectors that really are the big levers and where the opportunity is for investments in a green economic transition for Australia.
Everyone can use this as a working blueprint … It almost acts as a translation point between financial institutions that either want to lend or invest in the economy with real economy players who want to attract green investment and make capex investments that align with their own transition plans.
And it just provides confidence to the market that they can actually package things up and make plans around them in a way that makes them confident that they’re not going to be pinged for greenwashing - it’s rigorous, it’s science-aligned.”
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Nicole Yazbek-Martin
ASFI Executive Manager of Sustainability Standards and Practice
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Catch up
Capital
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Melbourne-based Allume, which has hooked up 10,000 customers in Australia, the UK and the US to its technology that shares solar and battery power and costs among units in apartment blocks, said it raised £5 million ($10.2 million) from investors led by UK energy company E.ON for expansion.
Policy
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Reform UK’s local-election victories in May 2025 could put 6 gigawatts (GW) of new clean-energy capacity at risk, according to Carbon Brief analysis. The hard-right populist party took control of 10 English councils in last month’s local elections and has said it will use "every lever" to block new wind, solar and battery projects. Those 10 areas have jurisdiction over 5,076 megawatts (MW) of battery schemes, 786MW of solar and 56MW of wind.
Regulation
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The complexity of US utility regulation is obscuring a transfer of wealth from the general public to shareholders on a vast scale, according to a former utility executive turned consumer advocate. (Inside Climate News)
Technology
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Developed by Finland’s Polar Night Energy, Loviisan Lämpö has commissioned the world’s largest Sand Battery. Some 13m tall and 15m wide, it uses 2,000 tonnes of crushed soapstone as its thermal storage medium. Located in Pornainen, the industrial-scale battery delivers 1MW of thermal power and a storage capacity of 100MWh to the heating district. The use of oil in the Pornainen’s heating network will be completely phased out, and the consumption of wood chips will decrease by 60%, with an existing biomass boiler as backup during peak demand periods.
“From an investor’s perspective, this technology holds tremendous potential: it can participate in electricity reserve markets, reduce dependency on single energy sources in heat production, and serves as a great example of sector integration between electricity and heat.” — Investment Director at CapMan Infra Sauli Antila
Climate
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For six years, Nganhurra joined dozens of other “ghost ships” anchored off Labuan, the tiny island territory north of Brunei. In a meeting last month with federal regulator NOPSEMA, the Maritime Union of Australia claimed Woodside was trying to evade its responsibility to properly decommission Nganhurra by sailing the vessel out of Australia’s jurisdiction. (The Age)
People
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The Grattan Institute promoted Alison Reeve to Energy and Climate Change Program Director, while Tony Wood was appointed as Senior Fellow for the Program, from July 1.
Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners appointed its Australian Regional Leader Brian Restall to the newly created role of CEO, with responsibility for the management of regional teams based in North America, Europe and Australia.
Research
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Neither bioenergy nor climate change are an isolated issue for forest dwellers in a US-based study, rather they are embedded within a matrix of cultural values, political ideologies, and lived experiences. To further complicate matters, even when different actors share the common premise that climate change is real and an important issue to address, they can differ in their view on whether bioenergy should play a prominent role in mitigating it.
Random
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Even more people who are AI enthusiasts or optimists argue the same thing. They, too, see a technology starting to think like humans, and imagine models a few years from now starting to act like us — or beyond us. Elon Musk has put the risk as high as 20% that AI could destroy the world. Well, what if he's right? (Axios)
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What's on
June 17-20
Australia Energy Week
Energy Minister Chris Bowen, Ausgrid CEO Marc England, AEMC Chair Anna Collyer, EnergyAustralia Managing Director Mark Collette, Woodside Energy COO Liz Westcott and NEM review Chair Tim Nelson headline this Melbourne event.
June 24-25
Noosa Power & Energy Conference
Climate Change Authority Chair Matt Kean, Grattan Institute Energy and Climate Change Program Director Tony Wood, Windlab Director of Policy Maggie Shelton and Energy Estate Co-founder Simon Currie are speaking at this new Queensland event.
July 17-18
Carbon Capture APAC Summit
Chevron General Manager of Energy Transition David Fallon, Beach Energy CEO Brett Woods, CarbonNet Project Director Jane Burton, Geoscience Director of Offshore Energy Systems Merrie-Ellen Gunning are among speakers at this event in Melbourne.
July 29-30
Australian Clean Energy Summit (ACES) 2025
AEMO CEO Daniel Westerman, AEMC Chair Anna Collyer, Climate Change Authority Chair Matt Kean, AGL CEO Damien Nicks, Iberdrola Australia CEO Ross Rolfe and Squadron Energy CEO Rob Wheals are among the lineup at the Clean Energy Council’s flagship event in Sydney.
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