Timor-Leste had agreed to buy Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips’s stakes in the Greater Sunrise natural gas fields for $300million and $350 million respectively.

Forty members voted in favour and 25 against.

Representatives of the opposition Fretilin, who opposed the government’s budget, voted against the change.

Prime Minister Taur Matan Ruak, called on business people to “trust in Timor-Leste” as a place providing “opportunity to develop their businesses”, in an address to parliament after the vote.

The revised 2019 budget is $1.5 billion.

Because of budget law change, the President of the Republic now has 30 days to decide whether to veto or promulgate the new version.