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By Sudarshan Varadhan
DILI (Reuters) - East Timor would prefer to work with Australia and partners Woodside Energy and Japan's Osaka Gas over Chinese firms that have expressed interest in developing the stalled Greater Sunrise natural gas field, its president said.
The comments by President Jose Ramos-Horta in an interview with Reuters mark the first time he has publicly expressed a preference to develop the field with Australia and existing partners since he suggested doing so with new ones such as China and Kuwait last year.
The prospect of developing Greater Sunrise, which has 5.1 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves, with new partners had raised concerns in Australia about growing Chinese power and influence in the Pacific region.
Ramos-Horta said East Timor has been stalling approaches from Chinese companies including state-owned Sinopec as well as Kuwaiti firms to develop the field, as it is committed to its Australian partners.
"If anything, it is our side that has been holding off," Ramos-Horta said in an interview on Sunday during a commercial flight from Dili to Indonesia's Bali.
State-owned Timor Gap owns a 56.6% stake in the field located about 140 km (87 miles) south of East Timor, while Australia's Woodside owns 33.4% and Osaka Gas holds 10%.
The multi-billion dollar development of the field, whose revenues were estimated at $65 billion in 2018, has been stalled for decades amid disagreements with Australia and operator Woodside.
It is vital to the economic growth of Southeast Asia's poorest nation, also known as Timor-Leste, which gained independence from Indonesia in 2002.
"Our government is open to listening to other investors. But in transparency with the existing joint venture, until the last minute, we say we want to work with Australia," he said.
Ramos-Horta said Woodside's CEO had told him and the country's prime minister in private meetings that developing a liquefied natural gas plant in East Timor was a viable option, but added that Woodside and Osaka Gas were still pushing to pipe the gas to an existing LNG hub in Darwin, Australia.
"All evidence acknowledges that the Timor option is a viable one, not more expensive than the pipeline to Darwin," Ramos-Horta said, referring to findings of a report by British engineering and consultancy firm Wood hired by the Sunrise joint venture as proof of the viability.
The report has yet to be made public.
Woodside said in a statement on Wednesday that the report did not make a recommendation, but it contained multiple considerations for each option including financing, technical and regulatory approvals.