Member Info for filthylucre

Dili, 11 September 2023

February 2024, East Timor to Join WTO

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation (MNEK), Bendito dos Santos Freitas, held a meeting on Monday with the Ambassador of East Timor to Geneva in Switzerland, Maria Lourdes Bessa, and a delegation from the World Trade Organization (WTO) to update them on East Timor's progression to join this organisation. Ambassador Lourdes Bessa said that in February 2024, the member countries of the WTO will formally accept East Timor as the 165th member. "By December, we will complete all the necessary technical work, and then in February the WTO will formally accept East Timor as its 165th member," said Ambassador Bessa. She added that East Timor's current preparation progress has already reached 95 percent, as all the necessary technical work has been completed. "Now our expectation is to address some questions that need to be answered by the end of this year, and then the affiliation will be confirmed next year in February during the WTO Ministerial Meeting to be held in Abudhabi," said Lourdes. The Ambassador of East Timor to Geneva stated that when joining the WTO, there will be many obligations that East Timor must fulfill and take responsibility for. However, there is also a great opportunity for East Timor, as it will also join the International Trade sector which has very firm rules and bases, thereby attracting international investment with high and sustainable responsibilities.

No idea what this could mean, if anything. But I’ll post it anyway.

Major changes in the organization of the Timor Leste Energy and Natural Resources sector have just been approved, with the publication in the Official Gazette of Decree-Law 59/2023 (Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Framework Law), Decree-Law 60/2023 (amending the framework governing the Institute of Petroleum and Geology), Decree-Law 61/2023 (amending the rules governing the National Oil Company, TIMOR GAP, E.P.), Decree-Law 62/2023 (on the National Petroleum Authority), Decree-Law 63/2023 (creates the National Mining Authority), and Decree-Law 64/2023 (dissolution of CMTL, S.A., and creation of Murak Rai Timor, E.P., the new State-owned mining company).

Besides introducing changes to the governance framework and powers of these institutions, the above statutes confirmed the dismissal of all members of the Boards of the independent bodies under the supervision of the MPRM.

Worth repeating what O Neill said about a final decision regarding Sunrise; "The positive is we do still have strong support from both the Australian and the Timor Leste governments to move the opportunity forward. We just need to get a little bit more support at the working level," she said.

I think it’s almost certain this project is finally going ahead. A huge positive for Boil.

https://aogdigital.com/amp/news/507769-woodsides-unions-settlement-costs-at-australia-lng-project-moderate--ceo

PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC RECEIVES VISIT FROM SAUDI ARABIA TOURISM MINISTER AHMED AL KHATEEB

Nicolau Lobato Presidential Palace, September 6, 2023

Today, the President of the Republic received a visit from the Tourism Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Ahmed Al Khateeb, and his delegation at the Nicolau Lobato Presidential Palace in Aitarak Laran, Dili.

This visit is the first since the establishment of bilateral relations between Timor-Leste and Saudi Arabia in 2015. "This visit is very special because Mr. Khateeb is visiting the Pacific after Timor-Leste," said Deonizio Babu Soares, General Coordinator for International Relations.

The President discussed various bilateral issues, such as how Saudi Arabia can contribute to Timor-Leste's development. They also talked about their preparations for an upcoming exhibition and how Timor-Leste can participate in the exhibition, as well as the possibility of economic cooperation between the two countries in the future.

Saudi Arabian delegation visiting Timor Leste and meeting with Hort today. No doubt investment opportunities. Be nice if Sundagas and Chuditch got a mention.

Jakarta, September 6, 2023 (Lusa)

Gusmão and Albanese met on the sidelines of the 43rd meetings. Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a bloc where Timor-Leste has observer status and of which it hopes to become a full member in 2025.

Gusmão thanked the support given by Australia and, personally, by Albanese himself, “who has Timor-Leste in his heart”, in particular for what he considers to be the way in which Canberra has acted to change the way the two countries see each other.

After the journalists left, and according to sources from the Timorese delegation, the dialogue remained in a “very positive tone”, with several issues being discussed, including references to the development of the Greater Sunrise oil fields.

In an interview with Lusa this week, Gusmão was optimistic about possible solutions, in the first half of 2024, for the project, which awaits in the coming weeks a study on the various development options, requested by the consortium that manages Greater Sunrise, where the Timorese oil company TIMOR GAP holds the majority of the capital.

“I am optimistic about an agreement at the beginning of 2024. I am confident with this new Australian Government,” said Gusmão.

Positive news from Australia, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese today announcing a Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040, which acknowledges the importance of continuing to grow trade between the world's fastest growing region and one of its long-term energy suppliers.

Crucially, the strategy recognises:

▪ the ongoing importance of natural gas - both piped and LNG - to Southeast Asia's energy security and economic growth, as the region transitions to cleaner energy solutions.

▪ that all countries should determine their own decarbonisation pathways to meet their own individual circumstances aligned to Paris Agreement commitments, and conventional energy sources such as LNG, along with renewables and energy storage technologies, will be a critical part of the energy transition.

Read the full Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040: https://bit.ly/3r2g7Ul

The Sunrise joint venture includes majority owner Timor Gap, Woodside and the Australian arm of Osaka Gas. In February, they said they would move ahead with selecting where to send the gas, with Timor Gap expecting a decision by November.

But on Tuesday, O'Neill said there was still no timeline on the final decision.

"The positive is we do still have strong support from both the Australian and the Timor Leste governments to move the opportunity forward. We just need to get a little bit more support at the working level," she said.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/gastech-woodsides-unions-settlement-costs-australia-lng-project-moderate-ceo-2023-09-05/

Behind a paywall.

The never ending saga.

Chuditch development needs to move independently from any Sunrise deal which may or may not happen.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/east-timor-tipping-a-deal-on-greater-sunrise-gas/news-story/a32423d130c7a96802d5fd1fffe6ea72?amp

I agree the share price makes us all a little sad. I think you probably meant pertinent. 😉

UPL rally faltering? Some might choose to move a portion of their gains in here.

The value of Chuditch to any potential buyer/ farmin partner has just increased exponentially.

Perhaps the real action starts now.

There is news. As Kylie as posted, the CCS approval is really positive for projects like Chuditch.

The Bayu-Undan CCS project has the potential to reduce the absolute emissions and emissions intensity of Australian and Timor-Leste gas and liquefied natural gas projects, as well as other hard-to-abate industries in the region. This means Australian and Timor-Leste gas and LNG projects could have a competitive advantage in a low-carbon world, potentially offering abated gas as a premium product for customers.

The current Bayu-Undan partners are operator Santos Ltd with a 43.4% interest, SK E&S on 25%, INPEX having 11.4%, Eni on 11% and Tokyo Timor Sea Resources Inc with 9.2%.

.

Might be of some interest.

METINARO SITE SURVEY CAMPAIGN UPDATE

3 August 2023 – TIMOR GAP President & CEO with its management visited Metinaro site survey to observe the survey operation progress from its contractor, Mahakarya Geo Survey (MGS), from Indonesia.

The onshore geotechnical survey activity has completed about 80% and full analogue offshore geophysical survey completed about 60%.

In parallel with the onshore geotechnical and offshore geophysical activities, MGS have also commenced the pontoon fabrication activity (floating platform for offshore geotechnical operation) in Metinaro to support offshore Geotechnical survey. There are 2 pontoons to be built and deployed for the offshore activity. 1st pontoon for the offshore geotechnical borehole and planned to be deployed on 15th August 2023 and2nd pontoon for the offshore seabed CPTu and planned to be deployed on 25th August 2023.

MGS will completely execute both onshore and offshore field survey by the end of September 2023, and provide the survey reports and analysis to TIMOR GAP in order to allow TIMOR GAP finalizing the FEED design study for Petroleum Import Terminal (PIT) project.

ENI just in the past few weeks buying companies and blocks in Indonesia.

Got to be looking at Chuditch. Possibly a buyout. Fits right into their current strategy.

Following the successful acquisition of Neptune Energy, today’s addition of Chevron’s assets strengthens our presence in #Indonesia even more.

This acquisition is also fully in line with Eni's energy transition strategy, of which gas and LNG represent key pillars, to increase the share of natural gas production to 60% by 2030, in conjunction with the world demand for accessible, low carbon and affordable energy.

Eni will acquire an asset portfolio which features strong complementarity at both operational and strategic level with its own, strengthening the presence in key geographic areas, like UK, Algeria, Indonesia and Australia.

https://www.eni.com/en-IT/media/press-release/2023/07/pr-eni-gas-assets-acquisition-chevron-indonesia.html

If you go back to Andy Yeo’s directors talk interview from March, he seemed to be suggesting discussions with a potential partner could be concluded by the end of the summer. Every reason to believe an announcement is very close if not ready and waiting.

“The CPR will be invaluable to Baron Oil over the coming months as we go back and talk to funding partners in June and into the summer.

Ultimately, our focus at this point now is to get us into a position to drill the appraisal well which in itself should result in a significant uplift in value even before the drilling takes place sometime in the next year or so.”

Thanks Adam.

Agree with that although the energy mix argument will come under a lot of pressure as time passes.

I’m in here but frankly not a good time to be banking on future hydrocarbon projects.

Here’s a massive deramp. The Greater Sunrise project is much delayed, complex , bureaucratic and uncertain. Even with a positive decision by Woodside to go with a Timor pipeline (no certainty), it could be a decade before production begins. With this timescale in mind, the elephant in the room is an accelerating climate change emergency which will affect coastal communities like Timor Leste. Massive pressure will build to close down major long term hydrocarbon projects with financial inducements to do so. Horta has previously said they will happily keep the gas in the ground if enough billions are offered. They could even use Greater Sunrise development as a bargaining tool. Extreme weather events and another year like 2023 and the dream of a Timor Leste gas economy might be a pipe dream. This needs to happen now. PSC negotiations complete and a commitment to start. Chuditch might get sold and Boil make a killing without worrying about any of the above. But there are plenty of reasons to hope we make progress on Chuditch very soon. Not a year or two away.

Only my opinion but zero conversation on the implications of climate change is head in the sand stuff.

Minor point. But if you’re going to talk about 1p, then less than 1p is 0.9p and less than 0.1p is 0.09p etc. I don’t get this 0.002p stuff. Hopefully we never get there.

Bottom line with this company. Just a hint, a reference to discussions, or even a clear roadmap to a partner on Chuditch and this share price goes through the roof. It can fall, stagnate or even crash in the meantime but the potential for investors to make a killing is off the scale.