East Timor sees Indonesia, S.Korea, Japan, China as Sunrise gas investors

Nobel laureate Jose Ramos Horta, the new-elected President of East Timor, delivers his speech after taking his oath through the swearing ceremony in Dili, East Timor, Could 20, 2022. REUTERS/Lirio da Fonseca/File Picture

MELBOURNE, Sept 7 (Reuters) – Indonesia, South Korea, Japan and China may all be enthusiastic about investing within the Better Dawn fuel mission within the waters between East Timor and Australia, East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta stated on Wednesday.

Ramos-Horta named them as potential traders because the nation is making a push to interrupt a stalemate with Australia and Dawn operator Woodside Vitality Group (WDS.AX) over tips on how to develop the fuel fields – both by piping the fuel to East Timor or to Darwin in northern Australia.

“So Indonesia is a possible investor in Better Dawn. Why not? South Korea is among the nice potential traders,” Ramos-Horta stated in a speech on the Nationwide Press Membership in Canberra.

Traders from Japan and China may be , he stated.

The 2 fields that make up Better Dawn had been found in 1974 and maintain an estimated 5.1 trillion cubic ft of fuel and 226 million barrels of condensate, a kind of sunshine crude oil sometimes discovered with fuel.

Improvement was first stalled by a bitter maritime boundary dispute that was resolved in 2018, after which by disagreement over whether or not to pipe the fuel to a brand new liquefied pure fuel (LNG) plant in East Timor or to an present LNG hub in Darwin, which Woodside favours.

Ramos-Horta urged Australia to again a plan to pipe the fuel to East Timor, the place he stated the mission may present $100 billion in income and improvement advantages to the nation.

The mission is vital to Timor’s future as its principal income, the Bayu Undan oil and fuel area, will cease producing later this yr, leaving the nation virtually wholly depending on its petroleum fund which presently holds $18 billion.

Ramos-Horta stated he was assured Better Dawn could be developed, probably in tandem with the Abadi fuel area off Indonesia.

“I am additionally assured that in the long run we’ll attain settlement with Woodside and the opposite three way partnership members. I am optimistic about that,” he stated.

He echoed feedback by state-owned petroleum firm Timor Hole, the bulk stakeholder in Dawn, that research present there are not any financial or technical obstacles to piping fuel to East Timor, regardless of the problem of traversing a deep ocean trench. learn extra

Reporting by Sonali Paul; Modifying by Jacqueline Wong and Christian Schmollinger

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Ideas.