What are the “official” statements on the value of Greater Sunrise?
Shell, Woodside’s partner in the Sunrise development, stated in August 2002, that quote “[a Sunrise floating LNG project] is expected to deliver over A$30 billion in export revenues and approximately A$8 billion in taxes to Australia and East Timor” (see submission #51 to Australia’s Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, 2002). This figure seems to have become the “official” word on the value of the Sunrise field, quoted in many academic papers and by media commentators since August 2002.
A footnote in a 2003 paper by Dean Bialek and Gillian Triggs (The University of Melbourne Faculty of Law, Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper No. 45) repeated that "The Greater Sunrise reserves are estimated to contain recoverable gas reserves of about 8.5 trillion cubic feet and condensate reserves of around 335 million barrels, valued at approximately A$30 billion: Government Press Kit: Timor Sea Treaty, 20 May 2002; see also Northern Territory Office of Territory Development, Greater Sunrise Northern Territory Oil and Gas Fact Sheet (2002)” Over time, such estimates, repeated often, become accepted truth by the consensus of experts quoting each other...........