Timor plants to trade gas for security with Aussie

Timor plants to trade gas for security with Aussie

Agence France-Presse, Sydney

Australia is ready to consider a proposal by East Timor that
it swap billions of dollars in disputed oil revenue for a treaty
guaranteeing maritime protection, officials said Wednesday.

The plan, which would settle the thorny issue of how Australia
and East Timor should split revenue from the Timor Sea's rich gas
fields, was unveiled by the fledgling nation's foreign minister
at a meeting of the Association of South-East Asian Nations
(ASEAN) this week.

Australian officials said they had not received a formal
submission from Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta, but were open
to proposals.

A spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who is
attending the ASEAN meeting, said East Timor was a good friend of
Australia, and "anything Timor wants to put forward will be
considered."

Ramos-Horta said in exchange for sharing some of the gas
proceeds from the Greater Sunrise gas field Australian coast
guard boats would patrol East Timor's southern coast to protect
against drugs and people smuggling, pirates and illegal fishing.

The yet-to-be-developed Sunrise field is expected to generate
tax revenue of US$4.3 billion.

"We should look at the Timor Sea as a whole strategy, as an
area of peace and prosperity between East Timor and Australia,"
Ramos-Horta said.

However, he is yet to put his plan to East Timor Prime
Minister Mari Alkatiri, who has a tougher stance on the issue,
and has only raised it informally with Downer.

East Timor's dispute with Australia over the Timor Sea centers
on maritime boundaries and how revenue from its gas fields should
be divided.

Alkatiri wants to claim a more extensive maritime boundary
than Indonesia enforced during its 24-year annexation of the
country.

The extended boundaries would include the Greater Sunrise
field, which under current boundaries lies in an area in which
revenue would be split, Australia receiving 82 percent and East
Timor picking up the remainder.

Alkatiri wants all of it, and faced with the prospect of a
successful challenge, Australia withdrew from the International
Court of Justice for maritime disputes, stonewalling what East
Timor considered a strong case.

Under Ramos-Horta's proposal, Australia would recognize East
Timor's extended maritime boundaries but would also receive a
significant slice of Greater Sunrise revenues, the size of which
would be subject to negotiation.