News of declining Australian gas demand was overshadowed by geopolitics this week as markets continued to brace for a global LNG supply squeeze.
Expected shortfalls in peak day and annual supply of gas were again postponed in the Australian Energy Market Operator’s latest Gas Statement of Opportunities. The 2026 GSOO does not take into account the federal government's yet-to-be finalised plan to reserve export gas for domestic usage, or current global liquefied natural gas shortages triggered by the US-Israeli bombing of Iran, but the trend reflects accelerating renewable energy deployment, electrification of more households and business, and modest increases in Bass Strait gas production. Origin Energy's January decision to delay the scheduled closure of the Eraring Power Station has also eased expected demand for gas-fired generation.
The news came as gas trading partner Japan said any retrospective taxing of LNG “would be really bad news”. The government’s current plan to reserve gas for domestic use is still being finalised, but would not apply to existing contracts. The Superpower Institute and others have been calling for a Norway-style tax on the cashflow of Australian gas producers.
Meanwhile, International Energy Agency head Fatih Birol said countries reliant on fuel imports in the Asia-Pacific region were most at risk from a protracted fuel crisis, but Australia’s current petrol and diesel fuel reserves were “adequate” at present. He added that Australia should continue to export LNG to replace lost production from Qatar. Birol warned against overhauling taxes on oil and gas profits during such a tenuous situation when quizzed by reporters. But others, such as the Grattan Institute, argue the crisis is an ideal opportunity to improve the status quo.
Capital
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Rio Tinto sealed a $7.5 billion agreement with the federal and Queensland governments to use public money to underwrite renewable electricity for its Boyne Aluminium smelter. Besides being the first time that solar power will be used to run an Australian aluminium smelter, it’s also the first use of Labor’s signature Future Made in Australia manufacturing policy where production credits are used to purchase electricity.
The Western Australian government will facilitate the development of over 1GW of onshore wind farms to replace its coal fired generation, it said in announcing Synergy and Water Corporation PPAs that will see them take renewable energy from the proposed 470MW Parron Maam Marang Farm, 130MW Kondinin Wind Farm, and 550MW Marri Wind Farm. The projects are expected to be producing electricity from late 2028, with the WA government noting that the committed capacity purchases “[exceed] our commitment to deliver 810MW of wind generation to replace the state’s coal fired power fleet.”
The US installed a record 18.9GW of batteries last year – a 52% surge compared with 2024 that saw utility scale installations surge by 31% during the fourth quarter alone. The figures, from Wood Mackenzie’s latest US Energy Storage Monitor report, found new battery energy storage system (BESS) activity spread across 13 US states – a significant change from the previous situation in which BESS deployments had been focused on environmentally-minded California and land-rich Texas.
Policy
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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called a National Cabinet meeting for Monday to discuss a nationally coordinated approach to fuel conservation with state premiers. It follows separate efforts by state governments including Western Australia and New South Wales to communicate the severity of the fuel crisis to the general public without causing alarm over potential fuel rationing policies, which Energy Minister Chris Bowen has so far said are unnecessary.
A six-month reduction in the statutory flashpoint for diesel – from 61·5°C to 60·5°C – will give Australian refineries more latitude to increase their supply of diesel, energy minister Chris Bowen said in announcing a change that will “widen the markets from which we source diesel”. Australia’s flashpoint is normally slightly hotter than that in regions like the US, Canada and Europe due to our hotter climate.
Victorian electricity retailers will be required to provide consumers with three hours of free power during the day, under a newly introduced offer called the Midday Power Saver offer that echoes the federal government’s Solar Sharer policy. Some 2.6 million Victorian households will be eligible for the program from October 1, three months after Solar Sharer, and just weeks before the state election.
Data centres would carry a high degree of social license as well as covering their own tab for new energy under a new set of expectations set out by the federal government. The government also expects data centre operators to prioritise Australia’s national interest; use water sustainably and responsibly; invest in Australian skills and jobs; and strengthen research, innovation and local capability. In response, the industry said it was already doing what was expected, including investing in technology that supports the grid, backing new renewable projects, and improving energy efficiency.
Pointing to misinformation and disinformation on climate change and energy being a “wicked problem” that requires a systemic response, a cross-party Senate committee made 21 recommendations, including officially endorsing the Declaration on Information Integrity on Climate Change launched at COP30 in Belem. Many of the recommendations point towards government agencies stepping up their outreach activities to help build social licence for energy projects.
One Nation outlined an energy policy that focuses on coal and nuclear. Party leader Pauline Hanson said the federal Department of Climate Change needed to be axed and wind and solar farms had “destroyed the nation”. “Yes, have your solar, wind, but not on agricultural land or any land actually,” Senator Hanson said. “You can put it on housing by all means. Get rid of the wind turbines." (The Australian)
Developers will be required to install solar panels and heat pumps in all new homes built in England, under new rules alongside the introduction of self-installable balcony solar panel systems that will soon be available for purchase in UK supermarkets. New homes will be banned from joining the gas network and will be required to have solar panels covering an area equal to 40% of the dwelling’s ground floor space.
 Projects
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A shortlisted cohort of up to nine battery energy storage system (BESS) projects will begin to come online later this year, after Transgrid completed technical modelling and announced it is negotiating with BESS builders to help it select a battery fleet "that provides optimal value for NSW consumers”. Contracting for this service will help stabilise the grid, Transgrid executive general manager for network Jason Krstanoski said. Transgrid expects to source as much as 5GW of stabilising services from third-party owned batteries by 2033.
Tasmania’s opposition Labor and Greens parties asked the State government to explain how AI company Firmus had succeeded in securing a 104MW supply from energy retailer Aurora to support its new St Leonards data centre – a year after the state’s Boyer Paper Mill, one of Tasmania’s largest power consumers, was knocked back when it tried to secure an additional 45MW for the electrification of its coal-fired burners. Premier Jeremy Rockliff declined to provide more details but said that “AI is the future, we cannot stop it. We need to embrace the opportunity of a new industry, a clean industry coming to Tasmania.” (ABC)
Snowy Hydro’s $1.3 billion Kurri Kurri gas power plant has been delayed yet again, with the Hunter region facility – already two years late and $690 million over budget – now set to come online in late May, based on AEMO data. Operators are also weighing deferring testing of the 660MW generator on diesel, given current supply issues.
Santos paused output from its Darwin LNG project due to issues with the company’s production, storage and offloading vessel, the BW Opal, which was only commissioned last June but has developed issues with dry gas seals on numerous compressors. Santos describes the vessel as the “production centrepiece” of its Barossa LNG project, with the BW Opal now being primed with gas from the Barossa field before resuming operations.
CS Energy’s Kogan Creek coal-fired power station was given a new lease of life after the successful delivery of a 334-tonne coal-fired generator. The German device, which was accompanied by a smaller 90-tonne generator rotor, will replace an older generator during a planned refit of the power station in July – substantially extending the life of the 750MW plant.
After days of speculation, the US Government officially reached a nearly US$1 billion agreement with French energy giant TotalEnergies to cancel its offshore wind leases off the coasts of New York and North Carolina. TotalEnergies committed to invest the value of those leases into oil and natural gas production in the United States, after which the United States will reimburse the company dollar-for-dollar for the amount they paid for the offshore wind leases. (Politico)
Regulation
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Oil and gas services company Qteq was fined $5 million, and its executive chairman Simon Ashton fined $1 million, after the Federal Court ruled on ACCC action alleging Ashton and Qteq tried to bring suppliers into cartel arrangements on five occasions between 2017 and 2019. The individual penalty against Ashton is the highest penalty ever awarded for a competition law breach by an individual in Australia. The contracts “included provisions not to supply services to large oil and gas companies, to rig a multi-million-dollar tender, and to market share,” ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said in announcing the decision. “Each of Qteq’s attempts to secure these illegal arrangements was unsuccessful only because the other parties rejected Qteq’s offers.”
EnergyAustralia has paid two fines from the Australian Energy Regulator, totalling $142,800, after it was found to have breached the explicit informed consent and disconnection provisions in the National Energy Retail Rules and National Energy Retail Law. The breach occurred when a third party accidentally set up an electricity account at an elderly customer’s address, after which EnergyAustralia transferred the customer to its service without their consent. Administrative mistakes led to the customer living without electricity for 114 days in 2023, during which time the customer was living by torchlight and eating out every day.
The AER has approved a gas retailer application from Singaporean-backed Flo Energy Australia, which is now authorised to sell gas after there were no objections. The regulator is also considering a gas retailer authorisation application by Agora Gas, with submissions open until April 24.
Utility companies will need to ramp up their support processes for financial hardship customers, based on the results of a new ACOSS survey of 2,070 people that found 77% are struggling to pay their energy bills – up from 64% last year. This, despite reports of broad efforts to cut back on energy usage, with three-quarters saying they use lights less, 64% showering less, 52% reducing their cooking and 26% turning off appliances such as the refrigerator to reduce power consumption. Fully 51% said they go without food, medicine or other essentials to cope, while 48% said they had sought assistance from their energy retailers.
Climate
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The World Meteorological Organization confirmed the decade from 2015 to 2025 as the hottest 11 years ever. This year’s WMO State of the Global Climate report also measures Earth’s ‘energy imbalance’ – how much extra heat is trapped on Earth – for the first time and found this was at an all-time high in 2025. The addition of energy imbalance as a key indicator is particularly significant, said UTS Centre for Climate Risk and Resilience director Martina Linnenluecke, noting that “a critical point is that this is not a temporary shock.”
India announced a long-awaited upgrade to its climate commitments pledging to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in its electricity capacity to 60 per cent by 2035. The world’s most populous country has increased its climate targets, with India now aiming to generate 60% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2035 – after reaching its previous target of 50% last year, five years before its previous targets. As outlined in the newly passed Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC 3.0), the government is also planning to reduce its emissions intensity by 47% by 2035, compared to 2005 levels.
After years of public commitment to decarbonisation, resources giant Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) has broken up its internal decarbonisation business as part of reorganisation initiated by new chief executive Simon Trott – who, reports say, has cut the company’s decarbonisation budget by up to 86% as it decentralises responsibility for cutting carbon.
Technology
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Australia has a two-year window to develop at least 3.1GW of data centre computing capacity, supplemented by supporting subsea and terrestrial connectivity that it needs to become an Asia-Pacific digital infrastructure hub, Deloitte Access Economics has advised. Its new Google-commissioned report found establishing Australia as a digital infrastructure hub could create up to 14,300 jobs and $134 billion in additional GDP over the next 25 years.
Human foot patrols of large solar PV sites could become obsolete, after CSIRO researchers successfully tested repurposed mining robots that traverse solar farms to check installed PV panels, supporting racks and other elements. The autonomous robots use LiDAR and onboard thermal and conventional cameras to map and navigate solar farms, using AI to process what they find as they look for PV panel faults, dust build-up, insect nests, bird droppings, physical damage, panel hotspots and other issues. CSIRO welcomes enquiries from solar plant operators interested in testing and helping refine the new technologies.
Looking ahead to next week, leaders of Australia’s gas sector will front the domestic gas outlook conference, and a Senate committee will report on its inquiry into revised environmental planning laws that passed through parliament last year.
