Woodside and East Timor target first LNG from Greater Sunrise by 2032

East Timor and Australia's Woodside Energy have agreed to investigate sending gas from large, undeveloped Greater Sunrise field to a new plant that will produce liquefied gas in Southeast Asia. The plant could begin exporting gas in seven years.

In a Tuesday joint statement, Woodside and East Timor’s Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ministry said that the agreement requires the two parties to examine the commercial and technological viability of a 5 million-metric-ton LNG project. The plan is to begin production as soon as 2032-2035.

This is the first time that the two sides have given a possible start date. They had been at odds for years over the development of the oil fields between East Timor, Australia and New Zealand.

Francisco da Costa Monteiro said that the TLNG project would bring the greatest economic, social and strategic benefits to the people of Timor-Leste. We are committed in working with Woodside and the Greater Sunrise joint-venture, as well as other parties.

The project will include a domestic helium plant and a gas plant. Helium is in high demand due to its scarcity, and because it's used in the semiconductor industry.

Woodside CEO Meg O'Neill stated that the agreement will address the remaining issues, such as an downstream commercial structure in order to attract funding and to better understand the "preferred route of the export pipeline".

The deep Timor Trough has been identified as a major obstacle to a gas pipeline connecting the Greater Sunrise fields with East Timor.

Dili insists that Sunrise gas be sent to the new LNG export facility in East Timor, and not Darwin in northern Australia.

Woodside has always resisted the idea, claiming it's not cost-effective, even though O'Neill suggested that smaller "modular", LNG processing units, could be built to reduce costs in East Timor.

The statement stated that alongside the study, tax, regulatory, and legal frameworks for upstream development must be negotiated by the Sunrise Joint Venture and the governments of East Timor, Australia, and Australia.

In 2018, the two countries agreed on a maritime boundary. Helen Clark (Reporting; Sonali Paul, Editing)

(source: Reuters)