Ampol makes move into energy retail market

The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) confirmed earlier this week it had received an application from Ampol Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of ASX-listed petroleum giant Ampol, for electricity and gas retailer authorisations under the National Energy Retail Law.

In its application to the AER, Ampol Energy said it is eager to utilise its existing infrastructure and its 3 million weekly customers and 80,000 corporate customers as the basis of its energy retailing offer.

“By becoming an energy retailer, Ampol will be able to bring new customer propositions to market off the back of its generation and mobility investments,” the company said.

“By launching Ampol Energy, Ampol will be able to partner with Australians to work towards a low-carbon future.”

Ampol, which supplies approximately one third of all Australia’s transport fuel needs, said retailing energy to household and business consumers is a “key pillar” of the company’s future business direction.

“Ampol Energy is focused upon the evolving and charging energy market as Australian consumers and businesses continue a trend towards decarbonisation,” the company said. “Energy markets and consumer preferences will continue to converge, so as such, the structure of the business is aligned to our future view of the market.”

Ampol said it would offer electricity and gas products to all jurisdictions of the National Electricity Market (NEM), and to household customers as well as to commercial and industrial businesses.

In its application to the AER, Ampol gave a provisional start-up date for the operation of February 2022 but that will not be achievable with the AER closing date for submissions on the application open until 2 March 2022.

Ampol also announced its leadership team, which will be headed by James Myatt, former chief executive of energy retailers Australian Power and Gas, and Mojo Power.

Former Energy Australia regulatory response leader Adam Lourey has been appointed regulatory and compliance manager, Doug Darley, former CFO of Ampol’s Fuels and Infrastructure division, will join as chief operating officer while Rochelle Schuenker, former energy lead for the Amaysim Group, will serve as acting head of retail.

Ampol first revealed its plan to enter the energy retail space in March 2021 with the release of company’s Future Energy and Decarbonisation Strategy, which also outlined plans to target new opportunities in electricity, hydrogen, gas, biofuels and carbon emissions reductions.

“Ampol is committed to reducing its carbon footprint and playing a key role in the energy transition,” the company said.

“Our financial strength, integrated end-to-end supply chain, Australian brand, customer relationships and industry knowledge will enable us to build energy solutions that can support the energy transition and broader change across the Australian economy.

“Over the next four years we will invest a minimum of $100 million to realise this strategy.”

Included in the initiatives, which underpin the company’s ambition of reaching net zero emissions across its operations by 2040, is a partnership with Tesla to create a virtual power plant trial in Adelaide.

Ampol is also working with Fusion Fuel Green to develop a solar-powered green hydrogen production plant at its refinery site in Brisbane, is supporting Endua which is working on the development and delivery of a modular hydrogen-powered energy generation and storage unit, and rolling out more than 120 electric vehicle fast-charging sites across its service station network.

Ampol’s move into electricity and gas retailing is the latest in the Australian market with fellow oil and gas giant Shell, and telecommunications major Telstra, and renewable energy player Enel Group among those to recently announce they would also be expanding into the sector.