Australia rejects oil revenue share

Australia rejects oil revenue share

CANBERRA (AP): Australia has refused to meet East Timor's demand for a 90-10 split of royalties from oil reserves under the sea between the two countries, East Timorese Finance Minister Mari Alkatiri said Friday.

"Still the proposal coming from Australia is 85-15," Alkatiri told reporters after an East Timor international donors' conference. "We are very generous, we are ready to give 10 percent from a 100 percent of ours to Australia."

East Timor argues that under international law 100 percent of the Timor Sea developments lie within its territorial waters.

Alkatiri said there were still three main sticking points before a preliminary agreement could be reached on a treaty between Canberra and Dili to replace an earlier agreement between Indonesia and Australia that divided the royalties 50-50.

He refused to elaborate what the problems were apart from revenue sharing.

"We are still doing everything, doing the best to have them (the negotiations) conclude by July 15 or even before," he said.

Alkatiri said the issue was now getting more complex because oil companies were hoping to proceed with investments to further develop the Timor Sea oil and gas reserves.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has repeatedly said that Canberra wants to be generous with East Timor, but has refused to publicly discuss its position on the actual revenue sharing arrangements.