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In this exclusive interview, Gualdino do Carmo da Silva, President of Timor-Leste’s National Petroleum Authority (ANP), outlines the country’s bold vision for the future of its oil and gas sector. From leveraging full control over new offshore blocks to enhancing infrastructure and digital transparency, he details the government’s integrated approach to attracting international investment. The discussion covers regulatory reforms, innovation in hydrocarbon recovery, and ANP’s groundbreaking new digital tools designed to boost local business participation. With the 5th Timor-Leste Energy, Mining & Business Forum on the horizon, ANP signals its commitment to a transparent, investor-ready, and inclusive energy future
1. What does the endorsement of the 5th Timor-Leste Energy, Mining & Business Forum 2025 mean for the national petroleum agenda?
Ever since the Maritime Boundary Treaty between Timor-Leste and Australia entered into force on the 30th of August 2019, Timor-Leste has now had greater areas in offshore that can be made available for future petroleum activities. It is a proven petroleum zone for both oil and gas. Where we have EKKN fields produced in 1999 and early, mid-2000.
EKKN sees its production, the Ketan oil field, which also produced for about five years, which is in 2015–16. And also the Bayu-Undan field itself, the biggest one that produced up to 111,000 barrels per day when it was at its peak. In addition, we also have, of course, the gas field known as Greater Sunrise, which is now being negotiated between the parties as part of the requirement under the Maritime Boundary Treaty, Annex B. Once the contract and legal and regulatory instruments are finalised, we can then progress to address the development.
So in sum, with this area now becoming 100% of Timor-Leste's control because it is in the zone—economic exclusive zones—of Timor-Leste, Timor-Leste has decided to enter into another exploration phase with more competitive regimes aimed for international oil and gas companies, particularly those from the exploration and production streams, in collaboration with our national oil companies.
That is really the main drive that we have. First, we have potentials. Second, we have greater areas, greater proven areas for us to magnify our efforts in the exploration stage.
And third, of course, the competitiveness of the package that Timor-Leste can offer.
2. How is ANP supporting investment readiness in the upstream and downstream sectors?
On the investment readiness, from ANP's perspective, as we are planning towards the release in 2026, we are now at the final stage of reviewing the potentials we have. We are also reviewing all the legal instruments as well as contracting instruments. On the front of data availability, we are also preparing for a more improved data accessibility or data representation to the market.
So, Timor-Leste may be remote geographically, but it should not be remote in accessing the data and information with regards to the needs for information for investment in oil and gas. So, this is one of the efforts that ANP has been focusing on. But also, the government in general—the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources—as part of the 9th Constitutional Government, is also working towards putting in place relevant supporting infrastructure, which is critically important to monetise the resources, both oil and gas.
To name a few, we have the helicopter airport for Suai Airport along the south coast. The development infrastructure is supporting infrastructure along the south coast of Timor-Leste. The helicopter is constructed to the oil and gas industry standards and ready to execute.
In the past, it was already used. Now, it is being revamped and ready to be used by the industry. As a logistical base in the south coast for the Suai supply base, it is also now being tendered internationally.
Similarly, the highway linking west to east, meaning that from the Suai supply base to Natarbora, where the government has designated the place to be an integrated complex. Installations for LNG plants, petrochemicals, as well as refineries in the future. So, these are very mature processes already.
You can see that it is not only the ANP as a regulatory body offering and focusing on reforming and making the data availability for the investors, reviewing the potentials of the fiscal regime, but also the overall effort of the government to ensure that the atmosphere, the environment is really positive for the investors. Not only for them to do exploration as such, based on the regimes that will be offered in the contracts as well as in the tax law, but also the supporting infrastructures to monetise their gas. So, this is a very holistic, comprehensive and integrated effort that the government is putting in place to ensure that the country is ready for the investments in oil and gas industry, both upstream and downstream sectors.
In addition to the supporting infrastructure that I was alluding to, the government is also in the process of maturing its studies for the construction of a pipeline highway, which will be aimed for monetising, developing, facilitating the development of the stranded gas fields, marginal fields, which would not be viable economically—if they were to develop by their own. But since the government has taken this initiative to develop this pipeline highway, highly likely that all these marginal fields in the south coast, particularly gas fields, would be viable economically.
We can tap into all those and then bring ashore for further processing and marketing. So, all in all, the government in general, holistically, comprehensively, looks at all the fronts needed to make one's good interest to invest in Timor-Leste fruitful and beneficial to all parties.
3. What are your key expectations from the Forum in terms of industry engagement?
Yes. Industry engagement can be, in our experience, we would expect to see at all fronts. For oil and gas players, like the explorers, but also goods and service providers, because Timor-Leste is looking at developing its supply chain.
The flow of goods and services in and out of the country—both upstream and downstream—as a means to multiply the economic benefits to the country, to the government, to the people through employment, but also to the private sectors, businesses. So, this engagement should be wider than just merely oil and gas players. Oil and gas players, which will invest in the exploration and production of developing the resources, but also the suppliers of goods and services for all these infrastructures.
And not to exclude the others, of course, to make sure that the investors are well supported with other means. Of course, it would be good if we have good engagements of industries in the peripheries, banking and finance, in addition to supplies of goods and services—banking and finance. These are one of those—insurance companies and all these relevant and supportive industries in the peripheries is important as well.
So that the country as a whole can be seen as facilitating the environment for all sectors which have interest or role to play one way or another in the development of oil and gas sector in Timor-Leste. So, people from trading backgrounds, people from logistics background, infrastructure background, banking and finance, real estate, hotels—all these come together because that is where the spin-off effects can play a role. So, industry engagement—one needs to see as an overall spectrum as opposed to a nucleus thinking of purely oil and gas exploration and production companies.
Because to monetise the gas, it requires more than a mere petroleum contract—petroleum operators. We have a bigger sphere of the stakeholders to be engaged. And that should be our focus, that should be our intention in this summit—to welcome all, to welcome all relevant stakeholders.
There is space for everyone, there is time for everyone, there should be a right forum for everyone. So, it should be a forum for all stakeholders, for all interested parties, direct or indirect, when it comes to the implementations of the explorations and production for oil and gas in Timor-Leste, both offshore and onshore.
4. How will ANP use this event to showcase regulatory transparency?
Timor-Leste has been on good track so far in the last 15 years—on its rhythm, up and down—but it's always there, committed, very committed to EITI mechanisms, Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative. So, Timor-Leste has been very active in that as a country, particularly for oil and gas sector, and ANP plays a very, very critical role in that process, interfacing the industry and the government. So, ANP will continue to play that role to ensure that Timor-Leste's indices continue to be positive in the eyes of EITI's ranking or criteria.
At the same time, ANP itself has been working on—as you know, ANP itself as a corporate, as an institution—it has an accreditation of two ISO certificates: 9001 for management system and 27001 for information management system. So, in sum, good governance is critically important for ANP.
It is the backbone in the governance, good governance that ANP has adopted in the last 10, 15 years and will continue to do so. Taking the advantage of the advancement in the area of information, communications and technology—AI, to name a few—ANP will continue to embrace all this to ensure that all the information is available online. Starting from the contract itself, the contract model itself, the bidding guidelines, bidding criteria, taxation regimes, contract regimes, regulations—all are well published in our media platforms to ensure that it is well known to the industry and also the application of those principles or those provisions or instruments in a manner that is consistent over time, through—as you may see in our records—published annual reports over the years, which are also available on our website.
So, in sum, yes—ANP is valuing highly this transparency and it is the soul of our operation, really—regulatory transparency—and will continue to improve as needed in the years to come.
5. What role can new technologies and innovation play in Timor-Leste's hydrocarbon development?
Yes, this is a very important and good question. Right now we have depleted fields, we also have mature fields, we also have stranded fields, and we also have new exploration by frontiers. So, to each of the categories, we'll be working closely with the operators to make sure that proper innovation and technology methodology is applied so that the recovery of hydrocarbons, the development of hydrocarbons can be done in such a way that is efficient, safe, and less harmful to the environment.
So, applications of technology here is critically important to make sure that an efficient recovery of hydrocarbons means that as much as hydrocarbons can be extracted from its resources in place, at the very minimum cost possible. But due consideration to best practices on safety and environment.
Just one more thing on the application, the innovation is that—to better engage the industry, if I may go back to question number three a little bit—ANP is also, which links between technology, innovation, as well as industry engagement, put it that way—ANP is in the process of finalising an online platform to maximise the participation of Timor-Leste businesses.
So, this online platform will serve as a database as well as a tool, a very dynamic, living tool to not only list and inventorise all the services and contract opportunities for goods and services, but also which everyone out there, international as well as local, can apply.
Transparently, because we are talking about regulatory transparency as well, but also aimed to promote the local companies in partnership with companies from outside as a means of fast-tracking the participation of Timor-Leste businesses in the oil and gas industry. So, this is one of the first-ever innovations that ANP has made in terms of another effort to maximise the participation of Timor.
In this summit, ANP will showcase this tool, but we are going to start using it anyway—even way before that—with those companies that are ready.
So, this is a very good tool, very good application of ICT to use this tool in order to promote the great participation of Timor. Second, to ensure it is done transparently and also competitively between the parties—fast-tracking the growth of Timor-Leste's participation, which we really need to have private sector as a growth. And this is one of the efforts that ANP is going to offer—or is offering—starting from the summit itself.
So, applications of this technology is critically important at all levels—in the operational levels with oil and gas industries, operators, contract operators—but also within ANP itself, as to how it can better promote not only the investments in oil and gas industries, bringing in the explorations and production companies with the know-how and with the expertise that they have, but also the engagements of other stakeholders, the engagements of the industry by making the data available, transparently, easily accessed, and nurturing the partnership.
On one hand, the country is aspiring to promote, maximise the participation of Timor-Leste—both in goods and services and also in employment. But with this tool, it would be better addressing, we hope—learning from the experience of other countries, such as Kenya, Nigeria, Angola, Oman, small countries like us, Malaysia.
So, this is a tool that hopefully we can materialise before the summit, so it can be beneficial for all—can serve as a centre of information, but also a centre of facilitation, if you like, when it comes to the participation in the opportunities for providing goods and services.
That is the first one, and soon after that, we are going to develop next year another similar platform, but only for employment and training of Timor-Leste nationals—so we do it in phases. So, I’ll stop there.
6. What message would you send to international oil and gas companies considering Timor-Leste as a market?
Timor-Leste, although it is a small country in size, in population, in areas—Timor-Leste, since its inception, has been also known to possess, to own hydrocarbon resources.
And throughout its life as a country, Timor-Leste is also learning as to how to better manage its resources—not only for the benefit of its country, its people—but also to ensure that it is a good environment for the oil and gas industry, namely the international oil and gas industries, for an investment—a good investment environment.
And with the experience that Timor-Leste has gained in the last 20 years, Timor-Leste continues to improve itself at all phases—contract, contracting stream, fiscal stream, infrastructure stream—to ensure that Timor-Leste is a proven petroleum zone that is competitive. Competitive in its regimes and its fiscals.
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