East Timor cabinet approves new regime for oil, gas development

Singapore (Platts)--17Dec2004

East Timor's cabinet Thursday approved a new petroleum regime for the
development of the new country's oil and gas resources, the Timor Sea Office
in the capital Dili said in a statement Friday. The proposed regime will
enable East Timor to work with qualified companies to develop oil and gas
resources in onshore and offshore areas outside the Joint Petroleum
Development Area established in the Timor Sea for joint administration with
neighboring Australia, it said. 

To date, East Timor has only benefited from
petroleum development in the JPDA, a known petroleum province that was being
jointly administered by Australia and Indonesia before East Timor's
independence following a UN-supervised referendum in 1999. East Timor and
Australia in May 2002 signed the Timor Sea Treaty, which carved out the JPDA
in the overlapping waters, revenues from which are to be split 90:10 between
Dili and Canberra. With its petroleum regime in place, East Timor is preparing
to launch exploration in onshore and offshore areas under its sovereignty.

More details were published in Platts Global Alert
(http://www.platts.com/Oil/Real-Time%20Information/Global%20Alert/)

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