Timor-Leste Still Seeks Sunrise LNG Plant
Timor Leste’s government has appointed former president Xanana Gusmao to head talks with Australia in the wake of the March 2018 treaty settling their offshore territorial dispute. He led the country’s delegation that negotiated the treaty.
In a statement dated August 21, the council of ministers agreed to prime minister Taur Matan Ruak’s proposal to appoint Gusmao as its special representative for the talks which, among other things, will “conclude agreements relating to the development of Greater Sunrise.”
The statement added that Gusmao will also lead the process of negotiating and concluding with Australia and with the oil companies the agreements necessary for the development of the Greater Sunrise fields. It reaffirmed the Timor-Leste government's “intention that the Greater Sunrise fields be developed through a pipeline to the coast of Timor-Leste and the construction and operation of a natural gas processing [liquefaction] plant in Beaco.” Oil firms and the Australian government have often said it would be cheaper to develop either a floating offshore LNG plant or one onshore Australia.
Under the March 2018 treaty according to an official Australian communique, upstream revenue will be divided 30% to Australia and 70% to Timor-Leste in the event that the Greater Sunrise fields are developed by means of a pipeline to an LNG processing plant in Timor-Leste, and 20% to Australia and 80% to Timor-Leste if developed with a pipeline to an LNG processing plant in Australia.
Australia's Woodside operates Greater Sunrise with a 33.44% interest; partners are ConocoPhillips 30%, Shell 26.56% and Japan's Osaka Gas 10%. The fields 150 km southeast offshore Timor Leste and 450 km northwest of Darwin in Australia were discovered in 1974 and hold gross contingent resources of 5.13 trillion ft3 of gas and 225.9mn barrels of condensate.
Gusmao was Timor-Leste's first president serving from 2002 to 2007, then its prime minister from 2007 to 2015. Prior to the country attaining independence in 1999, he had been a corporal in the Portuguese army, later joining armed resistance to Indonesia's occupation of East Timor.