Australian LNG player Woodside and its partners Timor GAP and Japan’s Osaka Gas have awarded the Greater Sunrise concept study contract to a unit of consulting and engineering firm Wood.
Woodside said in a statement on Wednesday that Wood Australia won the contract following a global contract procurement process.
According to Woodside, the “study will consider the key issues for developing, processing, and marketing gas with a strong focus on delivery of gas to Timor-Leste for processing and LNG sales or the alternative of delivery of the gas to Australia.”
It will include a range of disciplines including engineering, financial assessment and financing, local content, strategy and security, health safety and environment, and socioeconomic analysis.
The study will evaluate which option provides the “most meaningful benefit” for the people of Timor-Leste, Woodside said.
The study will be conducted in an impartial manner and, importantly, will not provide any recommendations to the Sunrise JV, the firm said.
It is targeted to be completed by no later than the fourth quarter of 2024.
In addition, the SJV and the governments have “continued to make progress towards agreeing a new production sharing contract, petroleum mining code and fiscal regimes, which upon finalization will assist with providing fiscal and regulatory certainty,” Woodside said.
Greater Sunrise fields
The Greater Sunrise fields, located about 450 km north-west of Darwin and 150 km south of Timor Leste (East Timor), comprise the Sunrise and Troubadour gas and condensate fields.
Woodside holds a 33.44 operating stake in the JV, the nation’s oil company Timor GAP has a 56.56 percent stake while Osaka Gas has a 10 percent stake.
In November last year, the JV received approval from East Timor to kick off work on the concept study for the development of the Greater Sunrise fields.
According to Woodside, the fields contain an estimated contingent resource (2C) 5.3 Tcf of dry gas and 226 MMbbl of condensate.
Woodside previously preferred the option of sending the Sunrise gas to Darwin as there are two existing LNG plants in the region, namely the Santos-led Darwin LNG facility and the Inpex-operated Ichthys LNG plant.
However, Woodside’s CEO Meg O’Neill revealed in November 2022 that the firm is willing to consider sending the gas to a new LNG plant in East Timor.