While the two countries have agreed on key elements of sharing the revenue from royalties a Woodside spokesman said the company needed certainty on all fiscal and legal issues. “We understand the deal requires ratification of both the parliaments of Timor-Leste and Australia,” he was reported as saying.

He said Woodside had no immediate plans to bring the project out of mothballs.

In February, Woodside chief Dan Voelte said the Sunrise partners (Woodside, Shell, ConocoPhillips and Osaka Gas) has probably lost the window to market Sunrise gas.

Woodside was now focused on commercialising its vast Carnarvon and Browse gas reserves, according to Voelte. This would involve developing a new hub based on the Browse and using the recent Pluto discovery as the foundation for a sixth North West Shelf LNG train.