East Timor-Australia maritime dispute

New East Timorese president Francisco Guterres is expected to push his country’s claim to the resource-rich Timor Sea as negotiations with Australia continue over a permanent maritime border

INDONESIA

WEST TIMOR

Dili

EAST TIMOR

Timor Trough

Joint Petroleum Development Area

Australian claim

Australia-Indonesia seabed boundary

Greater Sunrise: Oil and gas field worth estimated $40 billion

Bayu-Undan East Timor almost totally dependent on single gas field

TIMOR SEA

Darwin

Gas pipeline

AUSTRALIA

100km 60 miles

Francisco “Lú-Olo” Guterres could play key role in settling 15-year-old dispute

EAST TIMOR: Won key victory in Jan 2017 when Australia agreed to scrap controversial 2006 Greater
Sunrise revenue sharing deal and negotiate permanent border overseen by international court in The Hague. Median line between East Timor and Australia backed by UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)

AUSTRALIA: Maintains that border should lie closer to East Timor at edge of Australia’s continental shelf. Since 2002, has granted 90 percent of production revenues from energy resources within Joint Petroleum Development Area to East Timor,but development of Greater Sunrise field remains frozen

Sources: Australian Government, wire agencies

Picture: Associated Press