Woodside Petroleum Chief Executive Peter Coleman said talks were continuing with the government of East Timor to advance the Sunrise Floating LNG project and publish a development plan in 2012.
The feed-gas for the venture will come from the Greater Sunrise fields, located about 450 kilometres northwest of the Australian port of Darwin.
The fields have a total feed-gas resource of more than 5 trillion cubic feet and are partly located in a Joint Petroleum Development Area administered by the governments of both East Timor and Australia.
Woodside would be operator of the Sunrise FLNG venture. The other shareholders are ConocoPhillips, Royal Dutch Shell and Japan's Osaka Gas. East Timor would receive royalties from the venture.
Delays in coming up with a development plan have been caused by East Timor's insistence that the LNG plant should be constructed onshore in East Timor.
Woodside and the other shareholders want a Floating LNG solution, avoiding the costly construction of a pipeline to an onshore plant.
The Sunrise FLNG project could also likely involve one of the new floating liquefaction hulls being developed for Shell by Technip and Samsung Heavy Industries of South Korea.
The Shell FLNG hull, mostly using proven technology, would be capable of producing around 3.5 million tonnes per annum of LNG after it is moved into place above the feed-gas field.
LNG carriers would then come alongside the FLNG hull and load up the LNG for delivery to customers as at an onshore plant.
Woodside CEO Coleman has already visited the East Timor capital of Dili since taking over earlier this year from Don Voelte and the Sunrise project was now one of his priorities, he said.
The Greater Sunrise fields were discovered in 1974 when East Timor was administered by Indonesia. East Timor gained its independence in 2002.
