Lisbon, May 28, 2025 (Lusa) - Timor-Leste's minister of petroleum and natural resources told Lusa on Wednesday that negotiations with the Australian government on the Greater Sunrise project should be concluded before the end of this year.
"We are confident that we will reach a positive outcome to the negotiations soon, before the end of the year, for Timor-Leste," said Francisco Costa Monteiro, speaking to Lusa in Estoril, Cascais, where the Second Energy Conference of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) is taking place.
The Timorese government official, who is in charge of negotiations on this issue, said he was "optimistic" about the negotiations underway with the new Australian government, formed after elections in that country.
The new Australian government has retained the same prime minister and ministers in the area, so Timor hopes that, with their re-election, it will be able to "finalise the negotiations more quickly" to start "building refineries and petrochemical plants," bring "the gas pipeline from that field to Timor-Leste and develop the “downstreaming” industry," he said.
On 12 May, the minister told Lusa that he hoped negotiations on Greater Sunrise with Australia would intensify in the coming weeks, after the formation of the new Australian government.
"The negotiations were very intense before the elections in Australia. In recent months, we can say that the process has been slower because Australia was in the middle of an election, and it was only last week that everything was finalised," he said at the time.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was re-elected for a new term in the elections held in early May.
Asked about a specific date for the start of gas production in Timor-Leste, the minister explained that in negotiations, there are never any definite dates.
"I would like us to finalise the negotiation process this year, according to our schedule, so that next year we can get into the engineering details, allowing construction to start in 2027 and, eventually, production to start in 2031 or 2032," he concluded at the time.
Located 150 kilometres from Timor-Leste and 450 kilometres from Darwin, the Greater Sunrise project has been mired in a stalemate, with Dili advocating the construction of a gas pipeline to the south of the country and Woodside, the consortium's second-largest partner, leaning towards a connection to the existing facility in Darwin.
Faced with the impasse, the consortium, comprising Timor Gap (56.56%), operator Woodside Energy (33.44%), and Osaca Gás (10%), decided to hire a company to conduct a feasibility study for the project.
The company studied four main options: the development of Greater Sunrise for Timor-Leste, for Darwin (Australia), for the Ichthys gas field, also in Australia and operated by Japan's INPEX, and a new Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facility also in Australia.
"The Timor-Leste Liquefied Natural Gas (TLNG) option stands out for its lower operating costs and, by enabling better overall direct and indirect returns for Timor-Leste, will have a major socio-economic impact on the country," the Timorese government said in December.
The study was not released to the press.
The permanent maritime border agreement between Timor-Leste and Australia stipulates that Greater Sunrise, a shared resource, will have to be divided, with 70% of revenues going to Timor-Leste in the case of a gas pipeline to the country, or 80% if processing takes place in Darwin.
The connection of the gas pipeline to the south of Timor-Leste is considered by the Timorese authorities to be strategic for the country's economic growth.
ATR/ADB // ADB.
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