Mr Young’s belief is that work on Sunrise will need to occur before or after Ichthys is developed, re-iterating previous concerns that there is a lack of skilled labour within the territory.

Inpex has previously announced plans to construct an 800 kilometre subsea pipeline from the Ichthys Gas Field, located in the Browse Basin, to Blaydin Point on the Middle Arm Peninsula in Darwin, Northern Territory. The associated Ichthys gas plant is expected to produce 8 million tonnes per annum of LNG.

The Greater Sunrise Gas Fields Development includes the Sunrise and Troubadour fields, located about 450 kilometres north of Darwin and 150 kilometres south of Timor Leste. Woodside Petroleum is considering two options; developing a floating LNG facility or piping the gas to Darwin for processing.