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Timor Gap

The Timor Gap is often used to refer an area of ocean between Timor, Indonesia and Australia. In actuality, it refers to a gap in a seabed boundary line which Australia and Indonesia negotiated in 1972 -- the part of the line they could not define because, Portugal, the then-ruler of East Timor, declined to participate in the negotiations.

After 400 years of Portuguese colonization, 25 years of Indonesian military occupation, and 2-1/2 years of UN transitional government, East Timor finally gained independence in 2002. However, they have yet to establish maritime boundaries with their neighbouring countries, Indonesia and Australia.

Negotiations determining the ownership of the tens of billions of dollars worth of oil and gas located on the seabed of the Timor Sea, including completing the undefined boundary known as the Timor Gap, have been underway between Australia and East Timor since 2002, but despite several interim agreements, permanent maritime boundaries are yet to be settled. Australia and international oil companies have been accused of pressuring East Timor to accept a petroleum revenue-sharing formula while deferring permanent boundary resolution and foregoing legal avenues. East Timor and Australia signed a treaty to this effect (on "Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea - CMATS) in January 2006, but it remains unratified by either country eight months later.

• Minding the Timor Gap from Dollars & Sense
• The CMATS Treaty from La'o Hamutuk Bulletin, April 2006
• Index to Articles about Timor-Leste's Oil and Gas published by the East Timorese organization La'o Hamutuk.

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