East Timor Makes New Pitch on Stalled Woodside Gas Project

Soaring costs and the prospect of competition from U.S. shale gas to supply Asia customers have already threatened the future of a number of LNG projects around Australia.

Woodside has previously estimated that an onshore plant in East Timor would add as much as $5 billion to analysts' $12 billion cost forecast to develop the fields using floating LNG.

East Timor says a project using an onshore plant would cost $12-$13 billion and that floating LNG faces a greater risk of cost blowouts because it is a new technology.

Woodside declined to comment on Pires' offer to invest in a pipeline, pointing to an earlier statement from the firm that it remained committed to developing Greater Sunrise.

"We value our relationships with the Timor-Leste (East Timor) and Australian governments, and seek tripartite alignment to allow the timely development of this resource for the benefit of all stakeholders."

CLOSING WINDOW

Six months ago, Woodside said there could be a window of opportunity for a decision to develop the project in 2013 and analysts still saw the project coming online in 2018.