𝐵𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑘𝑜𝑘, 𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑖𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑, 14 𝑆𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 2026

His Excellency Francisco da Costa Monteiro, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, participated as a speaker in the Ministerial Panel “The Energy Reset: Who Controls Power in the New Global Order?” at Gastech 2026 in Bangkok, Thailand.

The high-level panel brought together His Excellency Gan Siow Huang, Minister of State for Trade and Industry and Foreign Affairs of Singapore; His Excellency Ekperikpe Ekpo, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas) of Nigeria; His Excellency Eng. Salim bin Nasser Al Aufi, Minister of Energy and Minerals of Oman; and His Excellency Francisco da Costa Monteiro, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Timor-Leste. The discussion was moderated by Sri Jegarajah, Anchor at CNBC, and focused on how countries can balance national energy strategies while building secure, resilient and diversified energy systems.

During the discussion, Minister Monteiro highlighted the importance of diversification not only in the types of energy available, but also in the sources and geographical routes through which energy reaches international markets.

“At the end of the day, if you look at energy security, resilience and diversification, I would argue that it is important to begin with diversification. What I mean is diversifying your sources of supply, but also the geography and the routes,” Minister Monteiro said.

Minister Monteiro highlighted Timor-Leste’s significant gas resources and the opportunity for the country to contribute to regional and international energy security as demand for secure and diversified sources of natural gas and LNG continues to evolve.

“Timor-Leste has a real potential, as one of the countries which can play this role for the region and the rest of the world,” Minister Monteiro said.

Minister Monteiro also highlighted the portfolio of discovered gas resources that Timor-Leste is working to bring towards development and commercialisation, including Greater Sunrise, the remaining resources at Bayu-Undan and the Chuditch gas discovery.

With significant progress recently achieved in negotiations on the Greater Sunrise Project, Minister Monteiro highlighted Timor-Leste’s ambition to move the project towards a Final Investment Decision by 2029 and first gas by 2034.