East Timor lays claim to disputed gas reserve in Timor Sea

East Timor lays claim to disputed gas reserve in Timor Sea

Agence France-Presse Darwin, Australia

East Timor will claim the entire Greater Sunrise oil and gas reserve to which Australia has already staked its claim, East Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri warned here Monday.

He told the South East Asia-Australia Offshore Conference that Canberra had agreed to discuss new maritime boundaries between the two countries which were not settled by the yet to be ratified Timor Sea Treaty.

"Our claim is very clear," Alkatiri told reporters in Darwin. "It applies to current international law.

"Sunrise should be 100 percent East Timorese. This is the point. That's where we are, but we are open to negotiation."

The treaty signed by Australia and East Timor gives East Timor 90 percent of the oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea that lies between the two nations. But it does not draw the sea boundaries and does not include the largest reserve, Greater Sunrise.

Australia has claimed 80 percent of the disputed field which lies in Australian territorial waters, but has agreed the remaining 20 percent should be shared because it lies in a joint petroleum development area.

East Timor contends that under modern law the boundary would be drawn in a place that would mean all known reserves would be in its jurisdiction.

In a unilateral move just weeks before the treaty was agreed, Australia withdrew from the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice in relation to some maritime boundary issues.

The withdrawal was described by Alkatiri as "an unfriendly act".

However, East Timor Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta, who is visiting Canberra with East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao, said Monday that East Timor respected Australia's sovereign right to make the unilateral withdrawal.

He also said his government had no intention of taking legal action as a first step in the dispute.

"It was never an intention on the part of the East Timor side to seek International Court of Justice intervention as a first measure," Ramos Horta told reporters.

Ramos Horta said Gusmao had mentioned the dispute during discussions with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, but only in passing.

However, East Timor would open talks with Indonesia over maritime boundaries. "Our position has been made very clear," he said. "We intend to start negotiations with Indonesia very soon."