RE: Timor Government in talks10 Sep 2021 21:38
TIMOR-Leste's government has sent a message that it is fully committed to the major Sunrise liquefied natural gas project, saying it could be developed in unison with other discoveries.
A senior government official told Upstream that the Dili- based authorities are looking for ward to finalising agreements required to underpin develop- ment of Sunrise, located 150 kilo- metres from the country's south coast in water depths of between 90 and 550 metres.
The Sunrise complex - also comprising the Troubador dis- covery-contains an estimated gross contingent resource of 5.13 trillion cubic feet of gas plus 226 million barrels of condensate.
Petroleum & Minerals Minister Victor Soares said in an exclusive letter sent to Upstream that the Sunrise production sharing con- tract that will dictate the terms and conditions under which the project will proceed is the subject of talks with the Australian gov-ernment. "The ongoing discussions have been on the exercise of jurisdic- tional competences in the Sun- rise field relating to the regu- latory and fiscal framework, such as a production mining code, a PSC, fiscal regime and issues raised by the Sunrise joint ven ture," he said. Soares stressed that "both gov- ernments have expressed their intention to expeditiously reach mutual understanding/align ment with every party involved in the Greater Sunrise special regime development and, most importantly, to conclude the negotiation/discussions and reach agreement on all the neces sary and relevant regulatory and fiscal framework".
The field is "indisputably vital for Timor-Leste's future develop ment and the current govern ment is looking forward to ment is looking forward to final ising all the discussions on juris dictional competences, including relevant regulations, to develop and benefit from the field as soon as possible", he said.
Soares said the government is "also exploring the strategy of simultaneously developing the other discovered gas fields in the Timor Sea close to the Sunrise field, namely Chuditch and Kelp. Deep, to further boost the eco nomic and commercial viability of bringing the gas pipeline to Timor-Leste".
"This strategy is considered to be more economically viable and, most importantly, will be more. attractive for interested investors to jointly develop the Tasi Mane project; ie establishing an LNG plant in the future," Soares explained. Tasi Mane is a government pro posal to build petroleum infra structure along Timor-Leste's southern seaboard including an LNG plant, refinery and petro chemical complex.
"Isolating the Sunrise field and developing it independently is possible, but it will be more eco nomically viable and desirable if…….
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