* Matt Chambers
* From:The Australian
* April 29, 2010 12:00AM
WOODSIDE Petroleum is set to announce as early as tomorrow that it plans to develop the big Greater Sunrise gasfields in the Timor Sea through a floating LNG platform, dashing the chances of a $5 billion liquefied natural gas plant at Darwin.
The Australian understands the four joint venture partners have come to an agreement on a concept to develop the field, but are still going through the formalities of finalising the decision.
Woodside, as operator of the field, is hoping to be able to make the announcement at its annual general meeting in Perth tomorrow.
Yesterday, a Woodside spokesman would not confirm the concept had been decided on.
“As we have previously said, we expect a decision to be made soon,” he said.
“When one is reached, we will be advising the ASX.”
Woodside and its partners — Shell, ConocoPhillips and Osaka Gas — have been weighing up whether to concentrate on a floating LNG ship to produce 4 million tonnes of LNG a year or an extension to ConocoPhillips’ existing onshore Darwin LNG plant, which would produce 5 million tonnes a year.
Ongoing delays in agreeing on a concept mean the timetable for a final investment decision on Sunrise has been pushed back from 2011 until 2012, according to a Woodside presentation made in February. First LNG is targeted for 2016.
In the February presentation, Woodside chief executive Don Voelte said the economics were strong for both development at Darwin — Conoco’s preference — and through floating LNG, Shell’s preference.
It is believed the development concept of the field has been influenced by East Timor, which has recently stepped up calls for Sunrise to be developed through an onshore plant there.
This is despite Woodside, in mid-2008, ruling out an East Timor plant.
The Greater Sunrise fields, which contain 5.3 trillion cubic feet of gas, sit on the border of Australian territorial waters and the Timor Sea’s joint petroleum development area, where East Timor and Australia split royalties 90/10 per cent.
Under a 2006 agreement, both nations have agreed to split royalties from the fields 50/50.
In January, East Timor secretary of state Agio Pereira said neither of Woodside’s options would be approved because the government was not confident of the company’s assessments that the East Timor option was not commercially viable.
Privately, the joint venture partners had hoped the vocal East Timorese proclamations were more an attempt to grab a better deal and gain public approval than a non-negotiable position.
