Australia promises E. Timor full benefits of Timor Gap oil treaty
Australia promises E. Timor full benefits of Timor Gap oil treaty
SYDNEY (AFP): East Timor will receive all the royalties that
would have gone to Indonesia under its 1989 Timor Gap oil
exploration treaty with Australia, the Australian government
pledged Tuesday.
East Timorese leaders Monday cast doubt on the future of the
treaty, declaring it to be an illegal agreement and saying they
would not be a successor to Indonesia in such an arrangement.
But Foreign Minister Alexander Downer urged caution, saying
the former Indonesian territory had far more to gain than
Australia from the treaty, which had the potential in time to
become "a nice little earner" for the East Timorese.
The treaty gave Indonesia and Australia oil and gas
exploration and production rights in a 61,000 square kilometer
(24,000 square mile) "zone of co-operation" in the oil-rich Timor
Gap.
"The treaty is in everybody's interest, especially East
Timor's, that there is stability in the treaty arrangements in
order not to jeopardize the investments that are taking place at
the moment in the Timor Gap," he told reporters here.
Asked if Indonesia's royalties would in future be available to
East Timor, he replied: "Absolutely yes.
"The UN will in future get those royalties until the point
where East Timor becomes fully independent," he said. "But I
think East Timor could do well.
"For Australia the royalties that come from the Timor Gap are
never going to be very significant in terms of our budget but for
East Timor they have the potential to be a nice little earner."
Downer said the current arrangements were being transferred
from Indonesia to the United Nations, which is currently the
governing authority of East Timor during its transition to full
independence.
When East Timor moves to full independence, the treaty partner
will change from the UN to East Timor.
"I know that the main investors, Phillips Petroleum, which is
an American company, are in contact with the East Timorese,"
Downer said.
"We have had fairly constant discussions with the East
Timorese ourselves.
"To start to unravel the whole of the Timor Gap Treaty, which
I don't think for a minute is going to happen, would in turn
unravel all of the investment in the Timor Gap and that wouldn't
be in anybody's interest, particularly East Timor's," he said.