First royalty for East Timor

First royalty for East Timor

UNITED NATIONS (AFP): The UN-administered territory of East Timor has received its first royalty from the Australian-operated oil field in the Timor Gap, worth over US$3 million, the UN said Tuesday.

The figure represents half the revenue collected from production-sharing between Oct. 25 last year and Sept. 25 this year, and is better than expected, spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

In October 1999, the United Nations took over the administration of East Timor from Indonesia, which had agreed to share the oilfields of the Timor Sea with Australia.

Eckhard quoted the head of the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), Sergio Vieira de Mello, as saying that once the territory becomes independent, "it can negotiate a new, real treaty with Australia."

The UN never recognized the 1989 Timor Gap Treaty between Australia and Indonesia, because it did not accept Indonesian sovereignty over East Timor, a former Portuguese colony seized in 1975.