Regional LNG: E. Timor proposes location for Greater Sunrise?s LNG plant

EAST Timor's Government has begun another international campaign aimed at having an LNG plant, based on the Greater Sunrise reserves in the Timor Sea, located in East Timor, The Australian reported Friday.

Reports from Singapore quoted East Timor Government sources as saying Sunrise partners were being told the plant should be in East Timor because the Greater Sunrise reservoirs lie only 150km from the new country, compared with 500km from Darwin where ConocoPhillips is building an LNG plant. Greater Sunrise is owned by Woodside, ConocoPhillips, Shell and Osaka Gas.

"We're trying to encourage the companies to at least look at the possibility of whether it would be more economical to build it in East Timor," an East Timorese Government source told International Oil Daily.

The new East Timor push has been prompted by talk of selling Australian LNG to US markets. Woodside acting chief executive Keith Spence said this month the Greater Sunrise partners were close to a decision on whether to commit to Shell's plan for a floating LNG plant or to bring the gas to Darwin where it could be processed beside the ConocoPhillips plant to handle Bayu Undan gas.

The project could supply up to 6 million tons of LNG a year to the US West Coast.

Woodside declined to comment yesterday in the absence of a formal request from East Timor through the JPDA.

Processing LNG in East Timor has been previously rejected because of a deep trough between the gas and East Timor's southern coast. (*)