East Timor wants a new gap treaty with Australia
East Timor wants a new gap treaty with Australia
SYDNEY (Agencies): East Timor wants to dismantle the Timor Gap treaty and draw up new maritime boundaries, putting virtually all the petroleum-rich Australia-Indonesia joint development area under Dili's control, a report said Thursday.
The National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) wants agreement with Canberra on a new international boundary by the time Dili's first independent government is established next year, according to The Australian.
"We are doing everything we can to have this settled and ready to be signed by the first elected leader of the new East Timor nation," said Mari'e Aikatiri, CNRT's economic planning chief.
"We are not thinking of renegotiation but a new treaty."
Talks between Aikatiri and Peter Galbraith, political chief of the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), were expected to be held in Canberra Thursday.
The CNRT is seen as East Timor's government-in-waiting and wants a seabed boundary drawn between East Timor and Australia as the starting point for negotiations on a new Timor Gap oil and gas revenue-sharing deal.
It would effectively give East Timor crucial fiscal gains, but Australia would lose significant royalty revenue.
AFP reported that Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said his government was prepared to listen to the East Timorese case but emphasized the need for a stable political climate in the area.
"The Timor Gap Treaty arrangements will be a matter for agreement in due course between Australia and East Timor," his spokesman said.
"But, both parties are fully aware of the commercial importance of maintaining stability in the Timor Gap regime."
Meanwhile, a Phillips Petroleum Co executive said on Thursday Australian, East Timorese and United Nations officials have told oil companies renegotiation of the Timor Gap Treaty would not hurt their oil and gas plans, .
Companies led by operator Phillips have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in the Timor Gap and are counting on the terms of the treaty to stay the same or at least not hurt the economics of their development projects.
Phillips Darwin area manager Jim Godlove said companies had made clear to Australian, East Timorese and United Nations officials it was essential to keep a legal and administrative regime in place and make sure the tax, cost recovery and production sharing terms for the companies were not worsened.
"A fiscal regime equivalent to the one that we're operating under right now -- no more onerous -- must remain in place," Godlove told Reuters.
The Timor Gap Treaty was signed between Australia and Indonesia in 1989.
Earlier this year UNTAET, the UN authority which took control of East Timor after the territory voted for independence from Indonesia in August, formally replaced Jakarta as partner in the regulation and administration of petroleum operations.