East Timor
The Spokesperson of the Government of Timor-Leste, Secretary of State Ágio Pereira, today re-confirmed the Xanana Gusmão Government’s position issued January 13, 2010; the proposed plans of Woodside and the consortium partners to pipe gas from the Greater Sunrise field to either Darwin or a floating LNG would not be approved.
Pereira said “the mechanisms for negotiations regarding the exploration of the Timor Sea have all been established; these include regulator to regulator, meetings of the Joint and Sunrise Commissions and whenever needed the Ministerial Council. Woodside does not have any unilateral authority on decisions regarding the resources of Timor-Leste. Woodside’s assertions in the media are misleading the public and their shareholders.”
‘The country is firmly committed to building an on shore petroleum industry, inclusive of a pipeline to Timor-Leste from the Greater Sunrise field and are equally committed to protecting Timor-Leste’s resources for the benefit of all future generations.”
We are talking about a very large project:
Gas Recycling Investment___________$1.5bn
Methanol / Syngas Plant____________$1.5bn
Production start__________________ 2013
Key Players:
Shell Developments, Woodside Energy,
Phillips Petroleum, Osaka Gas, Methanex
Corporation
Output:
Potentially Eight trillion cubic feet of
natural gas and 300 million barrels of
condensate over 30 year.
As you can see, this is a major oil and gas
field. The data above deals with one and
only one source, Greater Sunrise.
The area is on the edge of the Australian
continental shelf but closer to East Timor
than Australia.
A agreement was reached in 2007 but it
did not fully deal with production stage.
The dispute is not so much about royalities as about who will be involved in the development and where the processing will be done. The map shows all pipelines going to Darwin. This is because, until recently, it was believed that pipes could not be laid across the Deep Gulf between Greater Sunrise and the coast of East Timor. This belief is now being challenged. It could be that this was an unjustified reason given for processing oil in Australia. It is now believed that the sides of the gulf slop gently. Research is currently being done to see if this is the case.
A processing plant in East Timor could provide an industry which would greatly change the economy of the country.
