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Translation of article in Lusa News (Portuguese)
PRESIDENT AWAITS ALL INFORMATION FROM GOVERNMENT REGARDING SUNRISE
1 May 2010
The President of East Timor, Ramos-Horta said today that he will only take a position on the issue on the Sunrise gas field until after the government has provided him with "all information" on the subject, which it has thus far refused to do.
The Australian company Woodside announced on Thursday its preference of building a floating platform to process the natural gas extracted from the Sunrise field in the Timor Sea, at the expense of building a pipeline to Timor-Leste, as are the wishes of the Timorese government.
In a statement from the Government of Timor-Leste in reaction to the announcement, the government is saying that it will not approve this proposal, either "now or in the future," and noted that according Petroleum Treaty that governs the Sunrise field, process has to be approved by both the governments of Timor-Leste and Australia.
Questioned today by Lusa on his arrival in Dili from a tour of several Asian countries, Ramos-Horta said that he plans to study the issue before publicly declaring his position and revealed that he has repeatedly asked the Prime Minister, without success, for the study that the company Petronas has done on the feasibility of a pipeline to Timor-Leste.
"I have preemptively told the prime minister that I will not be parroting all positions taken by the government, in this or other matters. I have already twice asked the prime minister for the study allegedly undertaken by Petronas, but until now the Secretary of State for Natural Resources and his super technicians have not found time to share this study with the president," he lamented.
Ramos-Horta pointed out that the government "must be seriously well prepared on this matter and can not make decisions based on mere demagoguery and or rhetoric: "It is not a purely political decision: it is also a technical and commercial decision."
"So far I have not received the study commissioned by the Government two years ago in order to have access to all the technical information on whether or not the pipeline to East Timor is possible and to assess its commercial viability," he insisted.
Affirming not to say whether or not he agreed with Woodside’s option, or rejecting the government’s position, Ramos-Horta said he would only take a final public position after having possession of all relevant information.
"The President wants to study this issue, which cannot only be done by the government, or by certain elements of the Government alone, because I do not even know if the matter has been discussed in the Council of Ministers," he criticized.
By some estimates, the Bayu-Undan field holds reserves of around 175 million barrels of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), 229 million barrels of crude oil and 66 million tons of natural gas (LNG), equivalent to 1,050 million barrels of oil.
Sunrise, which is now at the center of controversy, is almost double these reserves and is ready to be explored: with 300 million barrels of condensate and 177 million tonnes of LNG, equivalent to 2,050 million barrels of oil.
Translation of article in Lusa News (Portuguese)
PRESIDENT AWAITS ALL INFORMATION FROM GOVERNMENT REGARDING SUNRISE
1 May 2010
The President of East Timor, Ramos-Horta said today that he will only take a position on the issue on the Sunrise gas field until after the government has provided him with "all information" on the subject, which it has thus far refused to do.
The Australian company Woodside announced on Thursday its preference of building a floating platform to process the natural gas extracted from the Sunrise field in the Timor Sea, at the expense of building a pipeline to Timor-Leste, as are the wishes of the Timorese government.
In a statement from the Government of Timor-Leste in reaction to the announcement, the government is saying that it will not approve this proposal, either "now or in the future," and noted that according Petroleum Treaty that governs the Sunrise field, process has to be approved by both the governments of Timor-Leste and Australia.
Questioned today by Lusa on his arrival in Dili from a tour of several Asian countries, Ramos-Horta said that he plans to study the issue before publicly declaring his position and revealed that he has repeatedly asked the Prime Minister, without success, for the study that the company Petronas has done on the feasibility of a pipeline to Timor-Leste.
"I have preemptively told the prime minister that I will not be parroting all positions taken by the government, in this or other matters. I have already twice asked the prime minister for the study allegedly undertaken by Petronas, but until now the Secretary of State for Natural Resources and his super technicians have not found time to share this study with the president," he lamented.
Ramos-Horta pointed out that the government "must be seriously well prepared on this matter and can not make decisions based on mere demagoguery and or rhetoric: "It is not a purely political decision: it is also a technical and commercial decision."
"So far I have not received the study commissioned by the Government two years ago in order to have access to all the technical information on whether or not the pipeline to East Timor is possible and to assess its commercial viability," he insisted.
Affirming not to say whether or not he agreed with Woodside’s option, or rejecting the government’s position, Ramos-Horta said he would only take a final public position after having possession of all relevant information.
"The President wants to study this issue, which cannot only be done by the government, or by certain elements of the Government alone, because I do not even know if the matter has been discussed in the Council of Ministers," he criticized.
By some estimates, the Bayu-Undan field holds reserves of around 175 million barrels of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), 229 million barrels of crude oil and 66 million tons of natural gas (LNG), equivalent to 1,050 million barrels of oil.
Sunrise, which is now at the center of controversy, is almost double these reserves and is ready to be explored: with 300 million barrels of condensate and 177 million tonnes of LNG, equivalent to 2,050 million barrels of oil.
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