Coal continued to be the mainstay of east coast electricity generation in the opening quarter of the current financial year, according to a new report issued today. Even though Q3 coal-fired generation was the third-lowest since Q4 2014, coal plants still accounted for 70% of electricity generation. The latest quarterly report by respected Australian energy […]

US President Trump is, with some success, aiming to reduce oil prices to cut US petrol prices. If sustained, lower oil prices translate into lower oil-linked LNG prices and lower LNG spot prices. Movements in oil prices take time to feed into LNG prices but in theory the fall in oil prices from a peak […]

Published in the Adelaide Advertiser 12 June 2018  By Adelaide-based Dr Graeme Bethune, CEO of EnergyQuest, an Australian-based energy consultancy specialising in independent energy market analysis and strategy. He has no commercial or financial interest in this issue but is committed to fact-based discussion of energy issues.  It is ironic South Australia’s local government is […]

Op-ed in the Australian Financial Review 1 October 2017.

Points of interest from the AER Gas Report 3-9 September Queensland LNG On 6 September 2017, daily gas production in Roma reached a record of 3720 TJ. The previous record of 3710 TJ (on 4 July 2017) was set as APLNG neared the end of a three month lenders’ test in which it was required […]

As reported in the March 2017 EnergyQuarterly report, Australian domestic gas prices continue to be lower than export prices and with higher LNG prices and flat domestic gas price realisations LNG prices and domestic gas price realisations diverged in Q4. The average Q4 LNG price realised by the NWS, Santos and Origin was $8.24/GJ compared […]

When markets operate normally, a sharp rise in the price of any commodity triggers a boom in exploration, development and new supply. The resource boom at the start of this century, underpinned by rapid expansion of Australia’s iron ore and LNG industries, is a textbook example. So where is the boom in domestic gas development […]

Notwithstanding the brouhaha about reaching South Australia’s target of 50% of energy production from renewables by 2025, the facts are that this target was achieved in the second half of 2016 and in fact exceeded. In Q4 2016 SA generated 2,451 GWh of electricity, of which wind contributed 1,172 GWh and Solar PV 316 GWh. […]

One of the side-effects of Wednesday’s blackouts in South Australia is that, even though there is plenty of wind, wind generation has been cut by 85%. On Wednesday, prior to the collapse of the mid-north transmission towers that precipitated the blackout, almost all 18 wind fams in South Australia were generating, producing close to 1,200 […]

While there is much understandable focus on electricity supply seecurity, the role of gas in providing an additional layer of energy security is often forgotten. In the latest SA power blackout, gas cushioned the blow for mant people and made a major contribution to a speedy recovery in turning the lights back on: The Bethune’s, […]