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Australia’s Queensland budgets $3.6bn in energy spend

  • Mercados: Electricity, Metals, Natural gas
  • 23/06/26

Australia's Queensland state government has earmarked A$5.2bn ($3.6bn) for power station maintenance and new transmission lines in its 2026-27 budget, as part of its Energy Roadmap plan.

The Liberal National Party (LNP) government added A$1.8bn in funding to its electricity maintenance guarantee over the next five years. This builds on a A$400mn investment towards overhauls at the Callide C and Tarong coal-fired power plants, and the Wivenhoe pumped hydro station in 2025-26, the government said.

The state allocated an additional A$3.2bn towards its A$13.9bn CopperString transmission project, which will link the national electricity market with the mining city of Mount Isa in the state's northwest. Its eastern link is expected to reach commercial operations by 2032.

Queensland also earmarked A$501mn for the A$2.5bn Gladstone transmission project to reinforce central Queensland's energy grid.

The state government expects to receive A$4.7bn in coal royalties in 2025-26, A$6.9bn in 2026-27 and A$6.3bn in 2027-28, budget papers show. Coal royalties were suppressed in 2025-26 due to lower global coal prices, the government said. Hard coking coal accounted for around 54.7pc of the state's total coal export value in 2025, followed by semi-soft coking coal at 25.3pc and thermal coal at 19.9pc.

The US-Iran war increased global demand for thermal coal due to the disruption of gas supply from the Middle East, pushing premium thermal coal prices up from $117/t in February to $142/t in early April, the government said. It expects thermal coal prices to moderate over the coming quarters.

The budget did not alter the state's coal royalty regime, which is the highest in the world. The Queensland Resources Council called on the government to reduce its royalty settings in a statement on 23 June.

Argus assessed hard coking coal fob Australia at $199.60/t and premium hard low-volume fob at $243/t on 22 June. The Queensland government expects coking coal sales to be supported by demand from India and Vietnam.

LNG exports from Queensland rose to a record 24mn t in 2024-25 and are expected to be similarly strong in 2025-26, the government said. LNG shipments from Gladstone rose on the year in May to 1.93mn t. Queensland expects to receive A$1.1bn in petroleum royalties in 2025-26, A$1.9bn in 2026-27 and A$1.2bn in 2027-28, which primarily come from LNG.

The state government also added A$146mn to accelerate the extraction, processing and export of critical minerals and drive new investments into projects and infrastructure, it said.

The current LNP administration has committed to keep state-owned coal-fired power plants operating for longer than the previous Labor administration.


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