Rather surprisingly, the most read post from this blog this week is an old one from 2013 - East Timor Complains About Australian Spying On Oil And Gas Negotiations / Australia Detains Whistleblower.

Presumably interest has been piqued by East Timor's recent decision to abandon an earlier agreement on oil and gas revenue sharing from Timor Sea fields - East Timor tears up oil and gas treaty with Australia after Hague dispute. The SMH has an article outlining the case for a better deal for the Timorese - Australia's unscrupulous pursuit of East Timor's oil needs to stop.

East Timor will tear up an oil and gas treaty with Australia that has been at the centre of espionage allegations, international arbitration and a bitter diplomatic dispute. The 2006 treaty relates to a temporary maritime border in the Timor Sea, and access to oil and gas deposits worth an estimated $40 billion. The agreement had outlined a 50-year freeze on negotiations for a permanent border.

But East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste, had claimed the treaty was invalid given Australian intelligence operations in 2004. Diplomatic relations have been tense since East Timorese officials accused Australia of spying on cabinet ministers amid negotiations on the treaty to divide the oil and gas fields.

It seems there is a social media campaign to try to pressure Australia into negotiating a fairer agreement with East Timor over oil and gas rights in the Timor sea - Message To Australia: 'Hands Off Timor's Oil'.

I'm sure the government will eventually agree to such a thing once there are no significant fields left in the area.

The ABC reports that Woodside are looking to build a floating LNG production platform for the Sunrise field between Darwin and East Timor (with the East Timorese continuing to lobby vigorously for the plant to be built there) - Floating LNG plant to be built near East Timor

After years of speculation, the Sunrise Joint Venture has finally announced it will build a floating liquefied natural gas processing plant in the Timor Sea. The Greater Sunrise field is in both Australian and Timorese waters, about 700 kilometres north-west of Darwin, and the two countries will have an equal share of royalties.

The floating rig means Darwin will miss out on having a multi-billion dollar plant built there. Operator Woodside Petroleum says after considering on-shore LNG processing in both Darwin and East Timor, the joint venture partners, which include Osaka Gas, Shell and ConocoPhillips, decided a floating plant was the most viable.

Woodside CEO Don Voelte says the decision is a boon for the new but impoverished democracy. "We expect that the selection of a floating LNG processing option will, in addition to generating significant long-term petroleum revenue, provide a broad range of social investment, employment and training opportunities for Timor-Leste."

The Australian has a report on progress on the Sunrise LNG project in the Timor Sea. Unsurprisingly, operator Woodisde has decided not to build an LNG plant in East Timor (much to the outrage of the Timorese) and instead is favouring a world first floating LNG platform - Darwin beats Timor for site of LNG plant.

WOODSIDE Petroleum has ruled out a $15 billion East Timor liquefied natural gas export plant to process output from its Greater Sunrise fields. East Timor's natural resource secretary of state said the decision would be a "major problem" for the Government.

A Woodside spokeswoman said yesterday that the Perth company had told East Timorese authorities a local plant was not commercially attractive and it would instead focus on piping gas to Darwin or building a floating LNG plant. East Timor Natural Resources State Secretary Alfredo Pires said he had not been informed of the decision and the Government, which had to approve the Sunrise project, would still push hard to for an East Timor plant.

"If there is a decision of that nature it will be a major problem for us," Mr Pires said yesterday after being informed of Woodside's statements. "To my understanding we have an agreement that no decision on a site shall be made until early next year."

Mr Pires said he was more than just hopeful an LNG plant would be built in East Timor. When asked if he was instead demanding, he said "yes". "We think it is only fair that the gas pipeline comes to Timor Leste," he said. "Timor Leste's needs have to be taken into account this time round."

After delaying the project since 2004 until fiscal and legal certainty could be obtained from East Timor, Woodside late last year restaffed the project.

That was done after East Timor ratified a treaty splitting royalties from the project 50:50 with Australia, an improvement for the smaller nation on a previous agreement. The Greater Sunrise fields straddle the boundary of the Joint Petroleum Development Area of the Timor Sea. Woodside had previously said the East Timor plant was the least preferred of the three options and yesterday said it was no longer being considered.

"Floating LNG is the most attractive in-field option and Darwin is the most commercially attractive onshore option for Sunrise," a Woodside spokeswoman said.