From Australia (RW): The government of Timor Lesté wants gas from the Greater Sunrise (SEN, 31/23) fields in the Timor Gap processed onshore and is willing to buy out operator Woodside Petroleum and any other partner who wants to sell.

Speaking at a conference in Perth, Petroleum Minister Alfredo Pires suggested that if one or more of the partners wanted to vacate the project, Timore Lesté’s $17bn petroleum fund would buy into the project if it would help to get the development up and running.

He said Timor Gap E&P - the national petroleum company - or a third party could then develop the resources ‘if Woodside finds it too hard to handle’. Pires did admit, however, that to his knowledge Woodside is not thinking of selling.

The minister said his country was keen to become more involved with Sunrise directly, or fund infrastructure such as the proposed pipeline to a location at Bea on the country’s south coast rather than seeing it built with ‘unproven’ floating LNG technology being advocated by the partners.

He said Timor Gap E&P has completed its own FEED and marine facility studies with the help of Norwegian firms and believes Timor Lesté could make a good return on its investment.

Pires said that there was some indication that the preliminary figures given by Woodside - $19bn for a pipeline to Timor Lesté, $15bn for a pipeline to Darwin and $12bn for an FLNG facility - are over-estimated. Consequently, the government sought to verify the figures.

He added that no serious consideration was taken on the Timor Lesté option to test the pipeline crossing of the 3,000m deep Timor Trench. His government has spent $20mn double-checking the Sunrise JV’s figures including $6mn to map the seafloor for the first time. He said the claims of an impassable trench making the pipeline option to Timor unviable were overstated.

Pires said the Timor pipeline would cost $800mn, whereas the Darwin option would cost $1.8bn. German company Europipe has said the Timor line was not outside the technological envelope.

It was also suggested that FLNG vessels were targets for terrorists, hinting that the pipeline option to Timor is a much safer option.