Timor Sea boundary negotiations to continue
Timor Sea boundary negotiations to continue
Road McGuirk, Associated Press, Canberra
The latest round of negotiations between Australia and East
Timor on how to divide billions of dollars in revenues from sea
bed oil and gas ended on Wednesday with an agreement to hold more
talks soon, a negotiator said.
East Timor's head negotiator, Jose Teixeira, declined to
comment on how the negotiations in the Australian capital,
Canberra, had progressed over the past three days.
"We've agreed to further talks soon," Teixeira told The
Associated Press.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard and his East Timorese
counterpart, Mari Alkatiri, exchanged letters to ensure the
negotiations could proceed, Teixeira said. He did not describe
the details of the letters.
The agreement to continue talks on how to share energy
resources in the Timor Sea, which separates one of the region's
richest nations from one of its poorest, appears to be a positive
development.
The negotiations broke down acrimoniously last October, with
each side accusing the other of derailing a solution to the
dispute over where their maritime boundary should lie.
At stake is an estimated US$30 billion in seabed oil and gas
royalties.
East Timor wants the border to lie in the middle of the 600
kilometers (370 miles) of sea separating the two countries.
However, Australia wants the same boundary it set with
Indonesia, which occupied East Timor in 1975-1999. In some
places, that boundary is just 150 kilometers (90 miles) from East
Timor's coast.
Australian officials said before the most recent talks that
they would seek a "creative solution" that would enable the $5
billion Greater Sunrise gas field - the largest in the Timor Sea
- to be tapped without the permanent boundary question being
settled.
Woodside Petroleum Ltd., one of the companies hoping to pump
oil and gas out of the region, shelved the Greater Sunrise
project last year because the two countries had failed to broker
a revenue-sharing deal.
Australia insists that any solution must provide Woodside and
its partners with legal certainty to proceed and must postpone
any agreement on a permanent maritime boundary for at least 50
years.
Postponing the boundary agreement is aimed at ensuring that it
remains in place until the seabed energy reserves are exhausted.
Australia would pay East Timor compensation for accepting those
terms.
If East Timor wants to first settle the boundary, Australia
has warned the negotiations will drag on for decades.
Teixeira declined to say whether negotiations were continuing
toward a "creative solution."
"While negotiations are on going, I don't think I should
create any further speculation about the talks," he said. "We're
working through details in respect to each party's position."
Australia's agreement to continue negotiations soon suggests a
creative solution remains on the table. Before the prospect of
such a solution was raised, Canberra would only agree to hold
negotiations every six months, while Dili wanted the rounds to be
monthly.