RE: Sunrise Update29 Nov 2022 13:51
The Australian Government's special representative for Greater Sunrise, in the Timor Sea, was optimistic today that an agreement on the project will be reached next year, stating that there is a short window of opportunity to make it viable.
"I would consider it a success if we get all parties to agree that this project has to go forward. I have a finite position. I've been in these roles for one year and I'm only going to take over one year, so I want to close this by November of next year. If I can't , I will be very disappointed", he said in an interview with Lusa. Steve Bracks, who is visiting Dili, was speaking to Lusa in his first interview since in October he was appointed special representative of the Australian Government to help unblock the impasse surrounding the Greater Sunrise project.
"The mandate I have from the Australian Government, which I was given by Foreign Minister Penny Wong after my appointment is very simple: Australia wants the project to go ahead. We believe it will be of great benefit to the people of Timor-Leste for this project to move forward", he said "We know that revenues from the [oil well] Bayu Undan are ending, we need a new source of revenue for the country and this is something that can finance the country for the next 20 years", he considered . Located 150 kilometers from Timor-Leste and 450 kilometers from Darwin, the Greater Sunrise project has been involved in an impasse, with Dili defending the construction of a gas pipeline to the south of the country and Woodside, the consortium's second largest partner, lean towards its connection to the already existing unit in Darwin. Bracks said that Canberra "does not have a position of defending one or another option" only intending that "the best option, the most economical and most beneficial" go forward and that the essential objective is "to get the project to move forward" and not to stay "paralyzed". About Woodside, with whom he met last month, Bracks explains that the partner of the Timorese oil company Timor GAP and Osaka Gás in the project "declared to have an open position". Formally, and currently, it is still the operator in the consortium -- although there is currently "a dispute over who is the operator" -- and, according to Bracks, "at the meeting they did not indicate that they have a final position on where it should be developed" , showing willingness to move forward. Bracks - former Prime Minister of the State of Victoria and considered a "friend" of Timor-Leste - was nominated by the Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, in October, following conversations that the head of the Government of that country held with the President Timorese, José Ramos-Horta, on his state visit to Australia. "It's a challenge. This is the last piece of the puzzle. We have a permanent border, the old treaty is gone, the new border is in force after the UNCLOS negotiations, which gives 80% of the resource to Timor-Leste if the gas is channeled to Darwin