Australia, Timor urge progress on Greater Sunrise gas field

By Kirsty Needham

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his East Timor counterpart, Xanana Gusmao, on Wednesday said the Greater Sunrise gas project should be developed "as soon as possible", with Australia pledging a third of its state revenue to its small neighbour.

Albanese, on his first visit as leader to Australia's northern neighbour, struck a new partnership agreement with Gusmao on Wednesday covering deeper defence ties between the two nations, border security and economic development.

The visit comes as the tiny Catholic nation, which is being courted by China, continues its push to build a liquefied natural gas plant on its south coast instead of piping the gas to a plant in the Australian city of Darwin.

After decades of delays, Australia's Woodside Energy and East Timor agreed in December to study a 5 million metric ton project for the Greater Sunrise fields, an area containing an estimated 5.1 trillion cubic feet of gas that Australia has been discussing, initially with Indonesia, since the 1980s.

A joint statement from the two leaders, distributed by Australia, said the two countries "share an ambition for Greater Sunrise to be developed as soon as possible for the benefit of both states."

Australia said it will establish an infrastructure fund in East Timor, allocating 10% of total state revenue from the project, "funded entirely from Australia’s share of future revenue."

"This commitment will see at least a third of Australia’s revenue from the project being provided to Timor-Leste via the Infrastructure Fund," the statement said.

The statement noted East Timor's preference for the onshore processing of gas.

"Australia will support any commercially viable solution to develop Greater Sunrise proposed by the Sunrise Joint Venture consistent with the Maritime Boundary Treaty," the statement said.

The national oil company Timor Gap owns more than 56% of the field, located about 140 km (87 miles) south of East Timor and more than 400 km from Darwin.

The governments will accelerate negotiations for the project and they urged the Sunrise Joint Venture to present a development concept as soon as possible, the statement said.