Iberdrola SA bought the 270-megawatt (MW), 1,080-megawatt-hour (MWh) Tungkillo battery energy storage system (BESS) project in South Australia from RES Australia. The project “has all the key approvals and very advanced connection rights, in addition to the land already secured”, Iberdrola said in a press release. The Spanish power utility expects to start up the project 2028. Iberdrola estimates EUR 275 million ($322.04 million) in investment to complete the project. “The Australian system requires a significant increase in battery storage capacity to integrate the new renewable capacity and bring flexibility to the system”, Iberdrola said. “The location of the Tungkillo project, in the south of the country, is optimal for providing this service. “In the case of Iberdrola Australia, the storage systems provide backup capacity for its portfolio of energy sales contracts to customers”. Iberdrola has two other BESS projects under construction in Australia, it added. It expects the 65-MW Smithfield project in New South Wales and the 180-MW Broadsound project, which is part of a 360-MW solar project in Queensland, to start operations 2025 and 2026 respectively. Iberdrola already has two operational BESS projects in the country, according to an online directory of its Australian assets. Iberdrola has a 10-year dispatch control for TransGrid’s 50-MW Wallgrove Grid Battery, connected to the New South Wales transmission network. Meanwhile Iberdrola’s 25-MW Lake Bonney project is co-located with the Lake Bonney Wind Farms near Millicent in South Australia. Additionally Iberdrola has three proposed BESS projects in Australia, according to the directory. Burrenbring Battery is planned to have a capacity of one gigawatt with two to four hours duration. It is proposed to rise on privately owned land on the Widi People’s Country in the Isaac Region. Mount Doran Battery is planned to have a capacity of 200 MW and two-hour storage. Iberdrola plans to connect the project to Australian Energy Operations’ existing Elaine Terminal Station.

Energy company ChemOne Holdings is seeking a $600 million private credit loan to support the construction of its chemical processing complex in Malaysia, according to people familiar with the matter. The proposed private credit deal would carry a tenor of up to 10 years and feature high single-digit pricing, the people said, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters. Several Korean institutional investors have committed around $150 million to the deal, said one of the people. A representative from ChemOne declined to comment. The deal reflects the growing global trend of using private credit for project financing. In the US, state and local infrastructure projects increasingly rely on alternative funding sources as pandemic-era stimulus fades and the Trump administration aims to reduce spending. In Asia, borrowers are also tapping the asset class to fund developments such as data centers and electric vehicle charging stations.  The private loan will be subordinated to an existing $3.5 billion senior debt facility that was launched end of last year, and is now fully subscribed, the people said. Both financings are intended to fund the development of the Pengerang Energy Complex in the southern state of Johor.  The project is designed to be a key component of a major oil, gas and petrochemical hub strategically positioned near international shipping lanes. Its deep-water access accommodates the world’s largest crude carriers. The low carbon facility is expected to produce 5.6 million metric tons annually of aromatic and energy products, according to a press release.  Lenders of the $3.5 billion facility include export credit agencies such as the Export-Import Bank of the United States, Euler Hermes AG, and Export-Import Bank of Malaysia, the press release said.  WHAT DO YOU THINK? Generated by readers, the comments included herein do not reflect the views and opinions of Rigzone. All comments are subject to editorial review. Off-topic, inappropriate or

Oil limped to a third week of losses, weighed down by signs the market is tipping into the surplus analysts have been awaiting. West Texas Intermediate ended the day little changed near $57 a barrel, down 2.3% this week in its longest losing streak since March. News on oversupply kept piling up this week. The International Energy Agency raised its estimate for next year’s global overhang by about 18%. And a US storage broker reported a surge in bids for securing tank capacity at the country’s key crude hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, underscoring that traders are positioning themselves for the glut. Prices for flagship US oil grades have also weakened. Crude traders are also following the on-again, off-again tensions between Washington and Beijing. President Donald Trump on Friday said higher tariffs against China were not “sustainable” expressed optimism that an upcoming meeting with Xi could yield a lasting trade peace after last week threatening an additional 100% tariff on Beijing’s goods. The shift in sentiment eased some concerns that the ongoing tit-for-tat between the two biggest crude consumers could cripple energy consumption. Trump, meanwhile, said he would hold a second meeting with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin “within two weeks or so” aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, a scenario that stands to send prices toward $50 a barrel, according to Citigroup Inc. The US president on Friday shrugged off concerns Putin may be manipulating him. “Crude is weighing Trump’s meeting with Putin against building evidence of oversupply,” said Joe DeLaura, global energy strategist at Rabobank. “With oil markets in contango from the second quarter of next year onward, the next path is down for crude unless demand surprises to the upside, which we view as unlikely.” Western nations are turning the screws on Russia’s energy sector in a bid

Colombia, the world’s only significant oil producer to join a bloc of nations vowing to quit fossil fuels, is poised for an about face. As President Gustavo Petro’s term winds down, most prominent candidates running to replace him are promising to put oil and gas back at the forefront of the nation’s energy policy. Even moderate and center-left candidates are calling for Colombia to start using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which Petro has pushed to make illegal. “If God gave us oil, coal and gas — we’ll use oil, coal and gas,” Claudia López, a former Bogotá mayor with a record of supporting progressive causes, said in an X post. Petro, Colombia’s first leftist president, made global headlines in 2023 by announcing the nation would sign the “fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty” to end oil, gas and coal production. It made the one-time Marxist guerrilla fighter a celebrity at international climate gatherings and brought heft to the non-proliferation movement, which until then was made up of mostly small island nations. The effort, however, backfired in Colombia. Petro’s refusal to allow new drilling contracts exacerbated a domestic gas shortage, forcing the nation to import fuel at higher prices. Now with Petro’s popularity waning amid rising violence and a ballooning fiscal deficit, presidential hopefuls are distancing themselves from his policies, including energy. During a recent event in Bogotá, five candidates held up “YES” signs when asked if they would authorize fracking in Colombia. Only one, Petro’s former environment minister Susana Muhamad, said no.  The shift in Colombia reflects a broader retreat from the fight against climate change globally. In the US, President Donald Trump is gutting Joe Biden’s climate policies, blocking renewable energy projects and withdrawing from the Paris climate accord. And the European Union is struggling to pass laws requiring further ambitious emissions cuts and walking back many of

Capacity crash Phillips 66’s announcement of its progress on the refinery shuttering comes amid growing concerns by California’s in-state refiners that unfavorable market conditions alongside regulatory pressure stemming from aggressive state legislation aimed at refiners will prevent long-term viability and competitiveness of crude processing activities in the region. While state officials recently voted to delay enactment of legislation blamed for decisions by California refiners to end operations at their conventional processing sites—which, in addition to Phillips 66 in Los Angeles, includes Valero Energy Corp.’s planned closure of its 145,000-b/d Benicia refinery, just northeast of San Francisco, by midyear 2026—refiners have yet to indicate any signs of backing down from advancing existing shutdown plans. With the state’s loss of about 20% of its traditional crude processing capacity since 2020—and nearly another estimated 20% at threat with the closure of the Los Angeles and Benicia sites—California’s refining capacity may face an additional short-term blow to its consumer fuels market following a late-evening fire on Oct. 2 at Chevron 290,000-b/d refinery in El Segundo. Chevron El Segundo refinery fire “Chevron fire department personnel, including emergency responders from the City of El Segundo and Manhattan Beach [were] actively responding to an isolated fire inside the Chevron El Segundo [r]efinery [on Oct. 2]. All refinery personnel and contractors have been accounted for and there are no injuries,” Chevron said in a statement posted to its official website. “No evacuation orders for area residents [were] put in place by emergency response agencies monitoring the incident, and no exceedances have been detected by the facilities fence line monitoring system,” the operator said. In a separate early morning statement on Oct. 3, the city of El Segundo said the fire “originated at a process unit at the southeast corner of the refinery.” Details of the impacted unit, however,

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, along with Russia and a few smaller producers, known as OPEC+, on Oct. 5 announced plans to increase oil production by 137,000 b/d starting in November, maintaining the same increase as in October in response to ongoing worries about a potential supply surplus. OPEC+ described its decision as a reaction to stable global economic outlooks and current healthy market fundamentals, as reflected in low oil inventories. The group also indicates that adjustments to production could be halted or reversed if circumstances warrant. By end-September 2025, OPEC+ had fully phased out the 2.2 million b/d voluntary production cuts introduced in late 2023, completing the process months earlier than initially signaled. They also confirmed their intention to fully compensate for any overproduced volume since January 2024. The next meeting will be hold on Nov. 2. “The market was expecting a somewhat larger increase from OPEC+ as shown in the structure last week. However, the modest 137,000 b/d bloats the already-oversupplied balance for the fourth quarter of 2025 and 2026,” said Janiv Shah, an analyst at Rystad Energy. Global crude oil markets are experiencing a significant bearish trend, with ICE Brent prices dropping from last week’s peak of $70/bbl to $65/bbl on Oct. 5, following OPEC’s announcement to increase production. Rystad Energy forecasts that under these circumstances, price dynamics will likely shift substantially downward. It is unlikely that ICE Brent will remain above $60-65/bbl in 2026 unless OPEC+ alters its approach or sanctions on Russia and Iran drastically curtail exports from those countries.