Southeast Asia’s poorest nation says ‘holding off’ Chinese interest in huge gas field

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 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 (144.4 billion cubic metres) 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 had 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 per cent stake in the field located about 140km (87 miles) south of East Timor, while Australia’s Woodside owns 33.4 per cent and Osaka Gas holds 10 per cent.