“We recommend that oil exploration will be exhausted in January 2022 so the platform must be dismantled,” Lobato said.

Bayu-Undan has contributed more than US$20 billion in taxes and other payments to the Timor-Leste Petroleum Fund since 2004, the U.S company has said.

Lobato said he expected Bayu Undan would generate a further income of “around US$7 million” for Timor-Leste, depending on global oil and gas prices.

The Independente  had reported that Timor-Leste would  start getting full royalties from the oil and gas field when the Timor-Leste government ratifies a new maritime boundary with Australia on 30 August, the 20th anniversary of Timor-Leste’s independence

Australia has been earning 10% of royalties from the oil and gas field.

Discovered in 1995, the Bayu-Undan field is a gas-condensate field located offshore in the Timor Sea within the Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA).

The field is located 250 kilometres south west of Suai.

ConocoPhillips recently sold its 30 percent stake in the Greater Sunrise gas field to Timor-Leste for $350 million.