“The Greater Sunrise field lies just 150km from our coastline compared with almost 300km from Australia... and I reaffirm my belief and our expert advice that the best development model for this field is to build a pipeline to feed gas into an LNG processing plant in Timor-Leste,” he said.
“As well as making commercial sense, building this plant would play a dynamic role in the development of our economy. We have already seen how processing Timor Sea gas in Darwin has spurred economic growth. The LNG plant has acted as a magnet for other industrial development.”
While an LNG plant would no doubt boost the local economy, Woodside would probably require significant sweeteners to locate it in East Timor.
The field is closer to East Timor than it is to Darwin, but the 3000 metre-deep Timor Trough lies between Greater Sunrise and the island.
The Timorese government recently conceded that the decision on where gas would be processed was best left to the project's developers, so it is now up to Alkatiri and his colleagues to persuade Woodside.
Sunrise looks like being on hold for several years while Woodside prioritises development of a new Browse Basin gas hub and expansion of the North West Shelf LNG project.
By the time the field is developed, Darwin will be well established LNG hub.
