MELBOURNE, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Woodside Petroleum expressed doubts its Greater Sunrise gas prospect could go aheadthis decade, leaving it off a list of growth projects out to2019 and beyond in its annual results presentation in a bad signfor impoverished East Timor.
Woodside has been in talks over the past 18 months with theEast Timor and Australian governments over options fordeveloping the long-delayed project, held up by disputes overwhether to build a liquefied natural gas plant onshore in EastTimor or a floating LNG plant.
Chief Executive Peter Coleman said on Wednesday the bigobstacle remains the decades-long battle between East Timor andAustralia over sharing revenue from the Greater Sunrise fields,which lie in waters between the two countries.
He said the company had run out of steps it could take tomove the project forward and it was difficult to justifyspending time and money on Sunrise in the short term until therewas certainty on regulatory and tax terms for it.
"Before you take that next step, you need to know who you'repaying your rent to," Coleman told reporters on a conferencecall after reporting annual results.
"At this point in time we don't know what the regulatoryframework is, we don't know what the fiscal framework will be,so we can't evaluate this project and we can't put it up tobuyers as to being a viable project that they would beinterested in."
He said the Australian and East Timor governments had givenno timeframe for settling their issues, including their disputeover the maritime boundary, and said he did not expect formerguerilla leader Xanana Gusmao's decision to step down as EastTimor's prime minister would help speed up a resolution.
"I wouldn't expect that changes in leadership at anyparticularl time are going to make fundamental changes in theway this moves forward," Coleman said, noting that Gusmao wasstill going to hold a key ministerial position.
"So he will remain quite influential I would expect."
Greater Sunrise is 33 percent owned by Woodside, theoperator. Its co-owners are ConocoPhillips, Royal DutchShell and Japan's Osaka Gas. (Reporting by Sonali Paul; Editing by Richard Pullin)
