Australia, East Timor plan to reach maritime border deal by Sep

Australia and East Timor plan to sign a deal on maritime border by the end of September, ending a long-running dispute between the two countries that has stalled the Woodside-operated $40 billion Sunrise LNG project.

The LNG project stalled due to disputes between the two governments on the maritime boundaries, as East Timor (Timor-Leste) argued that a larger portion of the Greater Sunrise assets should be under its jurisdiction.

The assets include the Sunrise and Troubadour gas and condensate fields, collectively known as the Greater Sunrise fields, located approximately 150 kilometers southeast of Timor-Leste and 450 kilometers north-west of Darwin, Northern Territory.

After a week of conciliation talks in Singapore with an independent body tasked with finding a resolution, both countries announced they would aim to resolve permanent maritime boundaries by September this year.

The talks are a result of East Timor’s move last year to take Australia to the United Nations for compulsory conciliation in order to resolve the maritime boundary dispute.

“Both Timor-Leste and Australia agreed that the meetings were productive, and reaffirmed their commitment to work in good faith towards an agreement on maritime boundaries by the end of the conciliation process in September 2017. The commission intends to do its utmost to help the parties reach an agreement that is both equitable and achievable,” the joint statement said.

As part of the talks, East Timor wrote on January 20 to the tribunals in the two arbitrations it had initiated with Australia under the Timor Sea Treaty in order to withdraw its claims.

These arbitrations had previously been suspended by agreement of the two governments following the Commission’s meeting with the two countries in October 2016.

“The withdrawal of these arbitrations was the last step in the integrated package of confidence-building measures agreed during the Commission’s meetings with the parties in October,” the statement said.

The Greater Sunrise fields were discovered in 1974 and hold gross contingent resources of 5.13 Tcf of gas and 225.9 million barrels of condensate, according to Woodside. The Australian LNG player, together with its partners plans on developing the resources through the Sunrise LNG project in which it holds a 33.44 percent stake.

Other partners in the project are ConocoPhillips (30 percent) Shell (26.56 percent) and Osaka Gas with a 10 percent stake.

LNG World News Staff