Reuters: Woodside Sees Slim Hope for East Timor LNG This Decade

Woodside Petroleum expressed doubts its Greater Sunrise gas prospect could go ahead this decade, leaving it off a list of growth projects out to 2019 and beyond in its annual results presentation in a bad sign for impoverished East Timor.

Woodside has been in talks over the past 18 months with the East Timor and Australian governments over options for developing the long-delayed project, held up by disputes over whether to build a liquefied natural gas plant onshore in East Timor or a floating LNG plant.

Chief Executive Peter Coleman said on Wednesday the big obstacle remains the decades-long battle between East Timor and Australia over sharing revenue from the Greater Sunrise fields, which lie in waters between the two countries.

He said the company had run out of steps it could take to move the project forward and it was difficult to justify spending time and money on Sunrise in the short term until there was certainty on regulatory and tax terms for it. MORE