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East Timor has not given up the fight for Greater Sunrise LNG project

The Northern Territory News - Australia, July 1st, 2009

President Jose Ramos-Horta said it would be more profitable to pipe the gas to his country, rather than process it on the spot or send it to Darwin.

The venture partners developing the field - Woodside, ConocoPhillips, Shell and Osaka Gas - are considering three options:

• PIPING the gas 450km to a new LNG plant in Darwin.
• BUILDING a floating processing plant at the field.
• PIPING the gas 150km to an LNG plant in East Timor.

The last option has all but been ruled out.

The venture partners argue that East Timor lacks a skilled workforce, is still politically unstable and a deep underwater trench between Sunrise and the mainland would present major engineering problems. A decision on the project is expected at the end of this year.

President Ramos-Horta said modern technology could overcome the difficulty of laying a pipeline through the Timor Trough. But he admitted it was not known if it would be cheaper than running a pipeline to Darwin. The president said East Timor was closer to the key markets of China and Japan - and the country’s tax regime was “far simpler and more generous” than that in Australia.

Greater Sunrise is estimated to contain 300 million barrels of light oil and 8.3 trillion cubic feet of natural gas worth around $90 billion.

President Ramos-Horta said East Timor earnt $100 million a month from oil and gas exports and had built up foreign currency reserves of almost $5 billion, while having almost no debt. He said some of that money could be invested into other forms of energy as part of a plan to become energy independent and contribute to efforts to reduce climate change.

Mr Ramos-Horta said it was up to countries such East Timor to take matters into their own hands on climate change rather than wait for rich polluters to help.