In November 2018 Timor-Leste’s government announced a $650 million buyout of Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips’s holdings in the Greater Sunrise gas project.

The deals would give Timor-Leste a majority stake in the oil and gas project, along with remaining partners including Australia’s Woodside Petroleum and Japan’s Osaka Gas.

In shutting down his speech Gusmao said that he was disappointed Fretilin members were not more supportive of a key strategic development project.

On December 14, the buy-out plans took a setback when the President of the Republic, Francisco Lo Olo Guterres, vetoed a parliament approved decree to modify access to state funds to purchase the shares.

At the time, Guterres called for a revision to Parliament’s proposal, declaring the veto aimed “to prevent the over-stretching of the Petroleum Fund’s direct investment rules and policies.”

Guterres said the decree could “misrepresent or dilute the difference between financial assets and other assets.”

The parliamentary approved proposal would have removed a 20 percent cap on state participation in oil projects, allowing Sunrise and other projects to bypass approvals by parliament.

Fretilin’s Deputy Chairman Francisco Miranda Branco said party members were concerned Gusmao had not answered their questions, declaring the government’s energy plans as being “confusing.”

Addressing parliament immediately after Gusmao had cut short his speech, Branco urged the government to clarify the financial risks of the project.

Branco said Fretilin continued to support the government’s vision to create an onshore gas-processing industry that included the construction of a pipeline from the Greater Sunrise gas field to Suai.

The energy plans have had bipartisan support, with Gusmao kept in the role by Fretilin leader Mari Alkatiri who, as Prime Minister last November, said “we firmly maintain our position that the gas pipeline must come to Timor-Leste.”

Gusmao’s speech came during the opening day of the President of the Republic’s hearing cycle on the proposed US$2132 million 2019 budget. The cycle will finish on Thursday.

 According to Francisco Vasconcelos, the president of the Petroleum Fund Consultative Council, Julio Crispim Ximenes Belo, is concerned about amounts withdrawn from the Petroleum Fund above the Estimated Sustainable Income and investments at national and international levels.

 In the past, the Council has agreed that it is necessary to invest in oil activities. However, in a statement released Tuesday, it said was “also imperative that in-depth studies be conducted and that the public be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of acquiring shares.”