More Oil
Back when the Portuguese pulled out of Timor and Indonesia stepped in to usurp their independence, the Australian government ultimately responded by negotiating sea borders with the Indonesians under United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which proved quite favorable, providing itself with significant undersea oil reserves. Now that Timor is out from under the Indonesian thumb, they’d like their oil back, but naturally John Howard and Alexander Downer aren’t having a bar of it. They don’t have to, either, because in 2002, Australia withdrew from the UNCLOS treaty. An interim agreement yet to be ratified would give Timor 90% of some seabed oil fields but only 20% of Greater Sunrise, the main field, leaving the rest to Australia. Royalties are estimated at around US$10 billion over the next 30 years. Since Timor has an annual budget of about US$79 million, the extra money would surely go a long way and, post-independence is desperately needed. Not that Australia couldn’t use every billion it can get its hands on, but fair’s fair and somebody’s not playing a straight wicket on this one. Recommended reading for those interested includes: James Ensor in Online Opinion and ABC Online News, but I’m sure there’s something out there in favor of screwing the Timorese out of their oil if your partisanship sails another way.