New timeline set for Sunrise as deadline elapses

摘要

Australian independent Woodside Petroleum is upbeat about moving forward with its Sunrise LNG project in the Timor Sea this year, despite a February deadline for an agreement on how to develop the project passing without a deal. Woodside wants to build a 4mn t/yr floating LNG (FLNG) project based on the Greater Sunrise gas fields in the Timor Sea, claiming it will save $5bn in costs compared with a landbased development. But the East Timorese government insists that gas be piped to a processing centre onshore. Sunrise is located in the region of the Timor Sea where East Timor and Australia have overlapping claims. The 2006 Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS) treaty settled maritime boundaries for 50 years, allowing Woodside to develop Sunrise. But under the treaty, a decision had to be made on how to develop Sunrise by the end of February, or either Dili or Canberra can terminate CMATS (AGL, September, p1).