A $4.7bn resource development proposed for the Timor Sea and Northern Australia ...

A $4.7bn resource development proposed for the Timor Sea and Northern Australia would generate substantial regional employment and export revenue, according to recent research undertaken by Australia’s Centre for International Economics (CIE). The Sunrise gas project is a A$2.5bn plan to commercialise the Sunrise and Troubadour gas fields, operated by Woodside and held jointly with Shell, Phillips Petroleum and Osaka Gas. The Greater Sunrise fields, containing an estimated 9.16tn cf of gas, have the potential to alleviate concerns about eastern Australia’s reliance upon maturing and declining gas fields. As these fields straddle the boarder between Australia and the Timor Gas Zone of Cooperation, the emerging nation of East Timor will also greatly benefit from the project, it is claimed. Woodside and Shell, in early 2000, signed a Letter of Intent with Methanex covering gas deliveries from the Greater Sunrise fields to a proposed A$1.5bn methanol and syngas plant near Darwin. The initial development will bring natural gas 500 km from the Timor Sea to the Gunn Peninsular near Darwin, supplying it to the Methanex plant as well as to other customers in the Northern Territory and to Mt Isa in Queensland. Investment in new pipelines for the project is put at $700mn. During the operations phase, it is estimated that the Commonwealth will collect around A$300mn/y from company tax, petroleum revenue taxes and substantial additional taxes from the economic growth generated by the Sunrise project. Exports are forecast to increase by A$760mn/y. Some 3,400 permanent jobs are predicted to be created around Australia as a result of the project, which is expected to have a 20-year plus lifetime. It is also estimated that the project will lead to tax payments of up to A$100mn/y to East Timor once full gas production is reached. It will also open up training and employment opportunities to the East Timorese people. Gas deliveries from the Sunrise gas project are slated to begin in 2005.