East Timor Eyes Second LNG Plant to Tap Remaining Bayu-Undan and Chuditch Gas

East Timor is planning a second liquefied natural gas plant on its south coast, drawing on remaining gas from the Bayu-Undan and Chuditch fields, Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Francisco da Costa Monteiro said.

The proposed facility would be separate from the much larger Timor LNG project, a 5 million metric ton per year development that the country hopes will be supplied by the Greater Sunrise gas fields it shares with Woodside Energy.

Monteiro said leftover gas at Bayu-Undan, operated by Santos, could amount to 1 trillion cubic feet. Combined with Sunda Energy's Chuditch field, that volume could support a new development of about 1.5 million tons per year with a 20-year lifespan.

For scale, US LNG capacity stands at roughly 130 million tons a year.

Bayu-Undan previously supplied Santos' 3.6 million ton Darwin LNG plant for a decade before production began to decline. On Monday, the minister said he expected an investment decision on the multi-trillion-cubic-feet Sunrise field by 2029.

"We are still in talks with relevant parties," Monteiro said of the second LNG plant plans. "I just came from China. We had some discussions."

Santos had intended to repurpose Bayu-Undan for carbon capture and storage, but Monteiro has said that can only go ahead if the company agrees to develop the remaining reservoir gas and use the field's infrastructure to process third-party gas. Santos confirmed the discussions and said it is awaiting a draft agreement from the East Timor government.

Earlier in September, Managing Director Kevin Gallagher told a conference in Darwin that a "significant amount" of gas remains at Bayu-Undan. Sunda CEO Andy Butler said the Chuditch field could deliver around 300 million cubic feet per day.