‘Trust’ to drive stalled East Timor gas project
The Timor-Leste president is confident that what he describes as a new period of goodwill between his country Canberra and Australia’s Woodside Energy will finally pave the way for the development of a major gas project after decades of delays.
Woodside and Timor-Leste agreed last week to work on a five-million-tonne project at the Greater Sunrise fields, which contain an estimated 5.1 trillion cubic meters of gas, which Australia has been discussing since the 1980s, initially with Indonesia.
Jose Ramos-Horta said trust between the nations had increased following past tensions, marking a departure from Dili’s previous criticism of Canberra and Woodside over project delays.
“I think there’s a level of trust that hasn’t existed before,” he said in an interview during his visit to Perth, pointing to the increased pace of work on the project and what he sees as Canberra’s good will in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s supportive comments in 2024.
In last week’s agreement, the project was estimated to produce gas by 2032-35; this was the first time a timeline had been announced by either side.
Ramos-Horta said he expects this program to continue.
Woodside declined to comment beyond previous statements.
The two sides had previously been at odds over whether to pipe natural gas to Darwin, Woodside’s choice, or build a liquefied natural gas facility on East Timor’s south coast.
Under CEO Meg O’Neill, Woodside has dropped its push for a Darwin solution but has yet to back a development in East Timor.
Development was first halted due to the bitter maritime border dispute that was resolved in 2018.
Timor-Leste insisted on building a greenfield plant and used its sovereign wealth fund to buy ConocoPhillips and Shell from the project in 2018 and 2019.
National oil company Timor Gap holds more than 56 percent of the field, located about 140 km south of East Timor and more than 400 km from Darwin.
MST Marquee analyst Saul Kavonic estimates building a facility in Timor could cost US$5 billion more than in Darwin, but potential Chinese intervention could push Canberra to back Timor’s plan for geopolitical reasons.
Ramos-Horta said that East Timor would prefer to work with Australia and its partners Woodside and Japanese Osaka Gas instead of Chinese companies interested in the project, and emphasized the strategic role of Canberra.
“Australia is indispensable to East Timor’s interests, security and economic prosperity,” he said.
He reiterated that Timor-Leste was willing to spend more of its sovereign fund to develop the onshore concept in the hope that it would stimulate new onshore industries.
“We are so confident in the Timor option that we don’t have any contingency plans,” he said.
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