Voelte unleashes on East Timor over Sunrise project, Woodside Petroleum Ltd.
Release Date: 2011-04-21
OUTGOING Woodside Petroleum chief executive Don Voelte has launched an unprecedented attack on East Timor over the stalled $US11 billion ($10.3bn) Sunrise gas project, questioning the will of its leaders to boost living standards in the impoverished nation.Mr Voelte, who will soon step down and return to his native US, suggested he was examining ways to break the stalemate with Dili over the project, possibly through selling Woodside's stake or launching legal action.
East Timor has threatened to cancel its historic treaty with Australia covering the Greater Sunrise LNG development unless the Woodside-led venture agrees to process the gas on Timorese soil rather than using floating LNG technology.
Woodside is the largest shareholder in the Sunrise project, with a 33 per cent stake. The other partners are ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell and Japan's Osaka Gas.
The venture argues that building a gas plant in East Timor would cost an extra $5bn, while floating LNG facilities would benefit East Timor by about $13bn over the project's life.
"I can sell the (Sunrise) project to another oil and gas company -- I've got lots of people knocking on the door for that," Mr Voelte said after yesterday's Woodside annual meeting in Perth.
"I could sell it to maybe one of our joint-venture partners, but that's giving up on this thing and Woodside doesn't give up -- we're a can-do company.
"And, by golly, we may have to do something some day to recover costs for our shareholders."
Mr Voelte's comments are likely to set back relations with East Timor even further and possibly make the task of Woodside's next chief executive in resolving the dispute even more difficult.
With just weeks remaining until he leaves Woodside, Mr Voelte made it clear yesterday that he had lost patience with East Timor's leaders over Sunrise and revealed he was unable to schedule a meeting with officials to discuss the dispute.
"For a government that was such great freedom fighters, 12 years later now, what's the measurement of this government on nation-building?" he said.
"Just what have they done in this area?
"By objecting to Sunrise being built, they must be objecting to promoting the quality of life and improving the livelihood of their people."
Mr Voelte said he still believed Woodside's flagship $14bn Pluto project off the Pilbara would be able to start producing gas by September.
Woodside said on Tuesday it might struggle to meet the September deadline for Pluto, due to heavy rains and cyclones in the March quarter.
"We have suffered four weeks of rain delays -- we normally have four or five days in our plan for Karratha," Mr Voelte said yesterday. "We really got hit hard this year."
| Type: | NORMAL |
| Company: | Woodside Petroleum Ltd. |
| Country: | 澳大利亚 |
| Url: | http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mining-energy/voelte-unleashes-on-east-timor-over-sunrise-project/story-e6frg9ef-1226042435258 |