This agreement is officially known as the Agreement between the Government of Australia and the Government of the Democratic Republic of

Timor-Leste East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-wes ...

relating to the Unitisation of the Sunrise and Troubadour Fields.Full text of agreement available from the Australasian Legal Information Institute's Australian Treaty Series database a

/ref> The Sunrise International Unitisation Agreement (Sunrise IUA) was made to enable the exploitation of the Sunrise and Troubador petroleum and gas fields in the

Timor Sea The Timor Sea ( id, Laut Timor, pt, Mar de Timor, tet, Tasi Mane or ) is a relatively shallow sea bounded to the north by the island of Timor, to the east by the Arafura Sea, and to the south by Australia. The sea contains a number of reefs, ...

, together known as the Greater Sunrise field. The Greater Sunrise field straddles the border between the joint petroleum development area (JPDA) established under the

Timor Sea Treaty Formally known as the Timor Sea Treaty between the Government of East Timor and the Government of Australia was signed between Australia and East Timor in Dili, East Timor on 20 May 2002, the day East Timor attained its independence from United N ...

and Australian territorial waters as determined by the 1972 seabed boundary agreement between Australia and Indonesia. Unitisation of the field would enable it to be treated as one as far as exploitation, regulation, revenue taxation, management and other purposes are concerned, giving certainty to investors by providing a financial framework and international legal basis for development of the field. The agreement deemed 20.1% of the resources of the Greater Sunrise field as lying within the JPDA, attributing 20.1% of production from it to the JPDA and 79.9% to Australia. With East Timor getting 90% of the revenue of the JPDA, it effectively was only going to receive 18.1% of the revenue from the field. This share ratio was amended to both Australia and East Timor getting equal share of the upstream revenue from the field with the signing of the

Treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea Officially called the Treaty between Australia and the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS), the treaty provides for the equal distribution of revenue derived from the disputed Greater Sunri ...

(CMATS) in 2006. By virtue of this, this agreement is "read together" with CMATS and the

. The Sunrise IUA was signed in

Dili Dili ( Portuguese/ Tetum: ''Díli'') is the capital, largest city of East Timor and the second largest city in Timor islands after Kupang (Indonesia). It lies on the northern coast of the island of Timor, in a small area of flat land hemmed ...

East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-we ...

on 6 March 2003 by then Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs

Alexander Downer Alexander John Gosse Downer (born 9 September 1951) is an Australian former politician and diplomat who was leader of the Liberal Party from 1994 to 1995, Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1996 to 2007, and High Commissioner to the United K ...

and Ana Pessoa, East Timor's Minister of State for the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. The agreement came into force on 23 February 2007 by virtue of the coming to force of CMATS on the same day.

References

{{Reflist Timor Sea Commercial treaties Joint development areas Treaties of Australia Treaties of East Timor Treaties concluded in 2003 Treaties entered into force in 2007 Energy in East Timor Petroleum in Australia Australia–East Timor border Australia–East Timor relations

See also

References