Can anyone enlighten me as to what the current situation is in regard to ownership of the offshore gas reserves near East Timor?

Last I heard, Alkatiri had managed to wangle a 50-50 split in profits between East Timor and the Australian government, despite Downer putting on his best sulking face.

I'm not entirely certain whether or not that went through... the East Timorese certainly need that money more than we do.

A long time ago the Australian Govt offered a very generous 10-90 royalty split. The delays have been entirely on Alkatiri's side, in part because he has sought to have the gas processed in East Timor. This is not viable for the producers. Because of the delays with development of these fields, the producers have developed fields elsewhere to meet demand and are currently not interested in developing the (Sunrise, I think) fields. Alkatiri failed to accept 90% of a lot and East Timor ends up with 100% of nothing. The Australian Govt is not to blame.

Horta is inclined to accept the deal offered, but no-one is currently interested in the developoment, and it's now unlikely to go ahead for at least several years.

Yeap, nobody is interested in developing oil and gas reserve in Timor Sea, and world coffee prices is at record low while most of East Timor's low-quality coffee got smuggled to Indonesia.

In short, there is no hope for East Timor's economy, which means East Timorese people will sink deeper and deeper into poverty. Australia is stuck to the burden of subsidising East Timor for many decades to come.

Jeremy,
You have sounded the trumpets of Timor's economic potential, but where are you in all this. If it is so great there, why don't you invest? There has been no shortage of international visitors checking out the commercial prospects in East Timor, but very few choose to invest. The reason why is worthy of an article in itself. PTBI - no need to be too smug. Indonesia also could not pursuade anyone to invest there while you were in charge either - except ABRI.

Rogindon,

There are a few reasons I'm not actively investing in East Timor at present, and I've laid them out here

http://thinkmojo.com/?p=264

But I do agree with you - there's a lot more to that discussion and it should be explored.

Cheers,
Jeremy