National energy firm Petronas said today it has been asked by East Timor to develop offshore gas resources from the country's vast Sunrise field.

"The government of Timor Leste has invited us to participate in the development of the gas field," Petronas president and chief executive Hassan Marican said.

"They have approached us and we are studying it," he told reporters.

Hassan's remarks come after Dili rejected a development proposal from a consortium led by Australian energy group Woodside Petroleum for the Sunrise gas field last week.

Woodside had proposed a plan to build the world's first floating LNG plant, which would process gas from the Sunrise field.

5 trillion cubic feet of gas

The field is estimated to hold more than 5.0 trillion cubic feet of gas and associated condensate. It was discovered more than three decades ago but its location has frustrated several previous development attempts.

Sunrise lies partly within the Joint Petroleum Development Area between Australia and East Timor, while the remainder straddles the two countries' territorial waters.

Hassan said Petronas had been providing the government of East Timor advice on how the offshore gas resources "should be and can be developed for quite some time now"

"We have been playing an advisory role to the Timor Leste government," he added.

- AFP