East Timor Favours Onshore LNG Plant

East Timor is eager to have a LNG facility onshore to liquefy gas from a joint project with Australia, country’s Prime Minister Rui Araujo told Nikkei Asian Review Friday.

Along with Australia and East Timor, the Greater Sunrise LNG project also has Osaka Gas as an investor.

Location of the facility has not been finalised by the stakeholders yet.

"We can develop our oil and gas industry, a big supply base, on the south coast," Araujo said, suggesting that this is a long-term goal.

East Timor seeks to use natural gas from the Greater Sunrise project to help establish an industrial zone, Nikkei said.

Other stakeholders see offshore liquefaction as more practical, considering the distance to land and ocean depth of the gas field, Nikkei said adding that if East Timor goes ahead with liquefaction onshore, that would mean more risk and less profitability for Australian and Japanese companies.