The $74bn Greater Sunrise gas project, which has been decades in the making, could be under way by the end of the year, the Timor-Leste president, José Ramos-Horta, said.
But he also said the pipeline and accompanying processing work must go to his nation, not Darwin.
The enormous gas field was found in 1974 in the Timor Sea – between Australia and Timor-Leste, which was then a province of Indonesia. Those two countries signed the Timor Gap Treaty in 1989. After Timor-Leste’s independence there were negotiations over the maritime boundaries that were only resolved in 2019.
Since then there have been more negotiations and the location of the processing has been an ongoing sticking point.
Ramos-Horta is visiting Australia and will speak at the Sydney Opera House before giving a National Press Club address on Wednesday. The trip comes amid mounting pressure for Australia to finalise an agreement, with Ramos-Horta saying there’s no shortage of potential investors, including from China.
According to the Australian government, the potential revenue from the gas field could be about US$50bn (A$75bn), and construction and job creation could add a further US$50bn, “lifting economic growth and public and external finances”.
Ramos-Horta said he wants Australia to work constructively and with an open mind to “reach an early conclusion on the development of the Greater Sunrise”.
“It’s a complex process and if they committed to it, I think by the end of this year a decision will be made,” he said.
While the pipeline will take six or seven years to be operational, Ramos-Horta said, hundreds of millions of dollars would start to flow and thousands of jobs would be created during the construction phase.
“The day they sign the agreement, the work will begin in Timor-Leste,” he said, adding that the benefits would be much higher if the pipeline goes to his country.
The gas field lies about 150km from Timor-Leste and 450km from Australia.
Woodside Energy, the operator, has argued that it is more commercially viable to pipe the gas to Darwin, but Ramos-Horta disagrees.
“It’s much closer to Timor-Leste,” he said.
“Going to Darwin means more cost because the tax in Australia is very high. It will cost 100 times more than in Timor-Leste, so if we can do it in Timor-Leste much cheaper, why would we want it coming into Australia?
“It makes no economic sense. Even a shopkeeper would understand these economics.”
Ramos-Horta said South Korea and Kuwait were also interested in investing.
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“There are always plenty of investors and not only China,” he said.
“Anyone who knows China and knows the US, you can see that China is not a plausible threat to the US or any country in the region,” he said.
“It is in China’s own interest to have a very peaceful Asia … that is in their own national interest.”
At the press club Ramos-Horta will talk about the successes of Timor-Leste post independence. He was the spokesperson-in-exile for the East Timorese resistance during the 24-year Indonesian occupation and returned home after the 1999 independence referendum. The Australia Institute is hosting him as part of its 30th anniversary celebrations.
He will also call on Australia to do more for Myanmar after the 2021 coup.
A Dfat spokesperson described Australia and Timor-Leste as “close partners and friends”.
“Australia strongly believes in a free, independent and prosperous Timor-Leste taking its rightful place in the world and the region,” they said in a statement.
“We want to see the Greater Sunrise field developed as soon as feasibly possible to support Timor-Leste’s development.
“We are open to any mutually beneficial and commercially viable solution to develop Greater Sunrise, consistent with the 2018 Maritime Boundary Treaty.”