Veronica Brooks, Canberra – East Timor's Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta said Tuesday a revenue-sharing pact with Australia covering the US$5 billion Sunrise natural gas project in the Timor Sea was fair and he expects it to be signed in a few weeks.
Ramos-Horta, accompanying East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao on a weeklong visit to Australia, told reporters that Dili and Canberra are ironing out some technical and administrative matters.
"The work is being done by technical people, no longer political (representatives)," Ramos-Horta said.
"We have a broad agreement and I believe that also...we have growing support (for the pact) within various institutions in our country," he said.
"So I believe (it is) only a matter of a few weeks before we are able to sign an agreement, which I sincerely believe... is a fair deal for the people of East Timor," Ramos-Horta added.
According to the Australian government, the deal thrashed out between Dili and Canberra earlier this year could deliver an extra US$5 billion in petroleum royalties to impoverished East Timor in addition to existing revenue arrangements.
In return, East Timor would set aside negotiations on a permanent maritime border for 50 years.
The deal would settle a protracted and sometimes acrimonious dispute between the two nations, with Dili last year accusing Australia of bullying East Timor by refusing to accept seabed borders that would give it more petroleum reserves.
Acting Australian Prime Minister John Anderson said Tuesday the deal with East Timor is "generous" and represents a "pragmatic and practical way forward" for both countries.
Sunrise contains up to US$40 billion of natural gas and concentrate, representing a significant windfall for East Timor, a poor nation of just 800,000 people which gained its independence from Indonesia in 2002 and still relies heavily on foreign aid.
Sunrise operator Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL.AU) is now close to getting the fiscal and legal certainty it needs to resurrect a venture it shelved last year.
However, the fate of Sunrise remains unclear, given Perth-based Woodside's attention is currently fixed on the Browse project, located wholly in Australian waters. Browse is targeting a 2011 start that will export LNG to Asia, and potentially the US West Coast.
What is more, some inside the East Timorese government continue to argue the Sunrise gas should be processed on Timorese soil, rather than be piped to a facility in the northern Australian city of Darwin.
"In our view it should go to East Timor. It's closest to the field of Greater Sunrise," Ramos-Horta said Tuesday.
"We... have very serious views and studies that the pipeline should go to East Timor. It would make much, much more commercial sense. If they (the Sunrise partners) prove to us this is not accurate, well we can discuss it again," Ramos-Horta said.
His comments are at odds with a recent statement by East Timor's Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri that it is up to the companies involved, and not the governments, to select where the Sunrise processing plant is located.
Woodside Chief Executive Don Voelte is scheduled to hold talks with Alkatiri on Thursday about the Sunrise proposal.
Woodside owns 33.4% of Sunrise, which is situated 150 kilometers south of East Timor and regarded as the richest prize in the waters that divide the two countries. Its partners are Conocophillips (COP) with 30%, Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD) with 26.6% and Japan's Osaka Gas Co. (9532.TO) with 10%.