Government receives representatives of ConocoPhillips and Santos Limited
The Minister of State of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and Minister for Petroleum and Minerals, Agio Pereira, received on Tuesday, October 29, the President of ConocoPhillips’s Western Australia Business Unit, Chris Wilson and representatives of Australian oil company Santos Limited.
This visit by representatives of ConocoPhillips and Santos Limited to Timor-Leste is the first since the American oil company sold its assets in the Timor Sea to the Australian oil company and will serve to introduce Santos Limited’s representatives to the Government and partners of Timor-Leste.
In a US $1.39 billion operation, ConocoPhillips sold its operating interests in Darwin's Liquefied Natural Gas processing facility and in the Bayu-Undan, Barossa and Poseidon oil fields. The completion of this sales process is expected to take place during the first quarter of next year.
Santos already held a participation in the Bayu-Undan Joint Venture and the Darwin LNG plant, both operated until now by ConocoPhillips.
During the meeting, Mike Nazroo, ConocoPhillips’s Vice-President Commercial for Western Australia, explained that Santos has been a partner of ConocoPhillips several years, notably in exploration of the Bayu-Undan oil field and that the two companies want to ensure that the transition is as smooth as possible and without major changes in terms of human resources.
Peter Unden, Executive Vice President of Santos, congratulated Timor-Leste for the recent ratification of the Maritime Borders Treaty and expressed Santos' commitment to work together with the Government of Timor-Leste in development of the Bayu-Undan.
The Minister of State thanked ConocoPhillips for its partnership over the years with Timor-Leste, which has contributed to national development and welcomed Santos, expressing his confidence that this partnership will bring benefits to the country and to the Timorese people.
In April this year, the Government of Timor-Leste and ConocoPhillips also completed the process of selling ConocoPhillips’ 30% stake in the Greater Sunrise Joint Venture.
