WOODSIDE OPEN TO SUNRISE OPTIONS

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Upstream staff,21 July 2010

Timor-Leste’s Foreign Minister Zacarias Albano da Costa said Australia’s Woodside Petroleum was “more open” to considering piping gas from the Greater Sunrise fields to an onshore liquefied natural gas plant.

Woodside plans to use a floating LNG solution to bring the field on stream but Timor-Leste wants to pipe the gas to an onshore plant near Dilli.

During a visit to Australia last month da Costa and Timor-Leste President, Jose Ramos-Horta, met with Woodside chief executive Don Voelte to discuss the field.

Da Costa told AFP that Woodside was now "more open" to discuss three options, which also include a pipeline to Australia's Northern Territory.

However a Woodside spokesperson told Upstream that the company still believed its FLNG solution was the best option to develop Greater Sunrise and planned to push ahead with its original development plan.

Timor-Leste plans to present a A$3.8 billion (US$3.3 billion) proposal to the Sunrise partners at a meeting in August in favour of the onshore facility however it has not explained exactly what development costs the proposed budget will cover.

Woodside has claimed in the past an onshore LNG plant would cost A$5 billion more than its FLNG solution.

The Greater Sunrise joint venture's economic modelling shows Timor-Leste stands to make $13 billion over the life of the project for its 18% share. At the same time, the Australian government stands to earn about $19 billion from its 82% share.

The Greater Sunrise fields lay in jointly-run waters between Timor-Leste and Australia and is believed to hold about 5.13 trillion cubic feet of gas, as well as 300 million barrels of condensate.

Woodside's partners at Sunrise are Shell, ConocoPhillips and Osaka Gas.
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