Timor-Leste warns it will work with China if Australia insists on pumping Timor Sea gas to Darwin

A new agreement was struck between Australia and Timor-Leste on the Timor Sea maritime boundary in 2019, but progress on the development of the Greater Sunrise resources has been slow.

The current preference of Woodside Energy, the Australian corporate giant seeking to exploit the gasfields, is to pipe the gas through Darwin for processing.

The decision on where to build the pipeline is ultimately a commercial one, though the Australian government is working with Timor-Leste on regulatory and taxation arrangements under the maritime boundary signed in 2019.

Woodside has generally argued that piping the gas to Darwin would be more commercially viable.

The Greater Sunrise gasfields are split from the Timor-Leste coast by the 3,300 metre-deep Timor Trench, which experts have argued would complicate efforts to pipe the gas there.