Woodside Exit Sends East Timor Searching for Greater Sunrise Partner

East Timor is seeking a new operator for its vast Greater Sunrise gas fields, an adviser to the project said, after Woodside Energy's move this week to exit its 33% stake is set to leave it without a partner.

East Timor will pay $200 million for Woodside's stake, ending a partnership that had been caught up in disagreement over whether gas from the deepwater fields should be piped to an LNG plant in Darwin, Australia, or to East Timor’s south coast.

“We are now engaged in identifying an internationally recognized operator/developer to use this transition period to get that so that we are on target for first gas in 2034,” Eric H. Namtvedt, strategic adviser to the country's energy minister and Timor LNG, said on the sidelines of the Singapore International Energy Week conference this week.

Woodside's planned exit follows an agreement last month for national oil company Timor Gap to buy Osaka Gas's 9532.T 10% interest in Greater Sunrise, which East Timor wants to develop as a 5 million metric tons per year LNG project at Natarbora on the southern coast to serve Asian customers looking to diversify their LNG sources.

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