The relationship between public international law and petroleum law: Study of the case between Timor-Leste and Australia

This article aims to analyze the Law of the Sea and Petroleum to understand the reasons that generated, for more than a decade, the conflict between Timor-Leste and Australia regarding the definition of definitive maritime borders. Timor-Leste has already been exploited and invaded by several nations. Because of the abundance of oil and natural gas, it suffered to gain independence in 2002, as well as struggled to enjoy its maritime territory until 2018, from this new context of the maritime border treaty signed between Timor-Leste and the Australia. The median equidistance line was the parameter used to define the definitive Timorese borders, granting the right to enjoy their maritime territory. The definitive pact on borders has contributed greatly to the development of Timor-Leste, due to the exploitation of sea riches, in addition to recognizing the country’s need for oil companies to assist in the evolution of Timor-Leste in a specific and punctual way. This now needs to be ratified by the national parliaments of both countries. The ratification process is due to be completed in 2019. Timor-Leste is currently seeking to negotiate its maritime borders with Indonesia, but these have been suspended during the mandatory conciliation process with Australia. Now that this process is over, the two countries can resume their discussions aga


INTRODUCTION
For more than a decade, Australia and Timor-Leste have disagreed with the maritime borders of each of these states. The dispute takes place because of the right to oil exploration and other sea wealth and the obstacles to the economic and political development of Timor-Leste, after a treaty signed with Australia. Thus, this article develops in the area of public international law, specifically in the area of Petroleum Law.
It is questioned whether the treaty between Australia and Timor-Leste, on the definition of maritime borders, has been balanced, fully preserving the right of timorese. What are the obstacles to prevent this nation from being exploited disproportionately by other nations and can develop from 2019?
The relevance of this research is justified by the fact that the need to respect timorleste's maritime borders by Australia is justified. In the 21st century, despite the existence of international law and petroleum law, Australia had no interest in carrying out a Treaty in which timor-leste's rights were recognised to receive the appropriate percentage for oil exploration of maritime territory. The country's historical economic fragility with much lower land space than the seafarer has made it the target of exploitation of countries such as Indonesia and Australia. Although there has been a permanent Treaty between Timor-Leste and Australia in 2018, it is necessary to explore several legal documents dealing with Sea and Petroleum Law to build international legal foundations, with the aim of multiplying the instruments of defense years in that territory, at a time when many deaths from illness and food shortages occurred. The international community was moved by the genocide that occurred there. In 1999, the UN, together with Portugal, brokered an agreement with Indonesia, which dealt with the possibility of holding a referendum. In August 1999, Timorese opted for independence with a majority of votes, as 78% of the population no longer accepted the massacre they suffered. But the dominators did not accept liberation.
Indonesian military personnel tortured and massacred the people. Many Timorese fled to the western part of the island, while everything that was built along the invasion was destroyed in that country. In order to control the massacre, the UN adopted Resolution 1246 of August 1999 to establish a multinational force to stabilize the situation. After the withdrawal from Indonesia, Timor-Leste became the recipient of aid from the international community, as there were human losses and incalculable materials. On May 20, 2002, with un aid, the independence of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste was restored, observing the first democratically elected government. [12] Australia's interest in Timor-Leste is nothing new. Australians had information that in the Timor-Leste Sea there was a lot of gas and oil. Since the discovery in 1960 that there has been wealth in the Timorese Sea foreign governments have tried to dominate the island. In the 1970s, Australia was the only country that recognized that the western half of the island of Timor belonged to Indonesia. It turns out that in 1970, an Australian company called Woodside Petroleum found a huge gas reserve in the region known as The Sunrise and Troubadour Fields or Greater Sunrise. [13] The intention to negotiate for territorial advantages was one of the reasons why Australians ignored the negative opinion of the international community, which did not agree with Indonesia's conduct to invade the western part of the island of Timor. Interested in making profits from the The Maritime Rights Conference took place in Geneva in 1958. In 1969, it was ratified by almost every country in the world. It deals with various subjects or topics that deal with the close connection in the ocean space between nations. The 1982 United Nations Convention on The Rights of the Sea (UNCLOS) was signed in Montego Bay, Jamaica, although it appeared at the Geneva conference. In this document are rules and principles of the territorial sea, contiguou [19] s, economic and continental areas. [20] With regard to the sovereignty of the coastal state over adjacent waters, it [21] regulates all countries that have adopted it, accepted or ratified it. There are also related standards on marine resource management and pollution control. [22] THE UNDP determines that the sea of the coast has 12 nautical miles, that is, 22 km.
At the vertical plane, it extends to airspace, having it as its limit. The seawater of the surface is limited through contact with the ocean bed, soil, as well as all subsoil is governed by the territorial sea legal regime. [23] The right of the sea to coastal states was guaranteed exclusive economic exploitation in an air of 200 nautical miles, but this rule does not apply to States that are less than 400 miles away from their contiguous areas. [24] https://www.nucleodoconhecimento.com.br RC: 45093 Disponível em: https://www.nucleodoconhecimento.com.br/law/international-public-law The Territorial Sea is the area located between the inland waters and the High Seas.
It is the continuation of the sovereignty of a coastal country that exceeds its territory and its waters, according to Articles 2 and 3 of the UNCLOS. [25] The State exercises sovereignty over its territorial sea, airspace, as well as the bed and subsoil under the territorial sea, according to Art. 02 to 32 of the Convention on The Rights of the Sea. [26] The outer boundary of each nation's territorial sea is twenty-two kilometers. The State exercises its jurisdiction over activities of national interest in the contiguous maritime area, which is set at 12 miles. The United Nations Convention created the Exclusive Economic Zone, EEZ, to balance interests between countries. This is an area located beyond the Territorial Sea. It refers to the area near the contiguous zone and extends up to 200 miles from the coast. The state has the right to navigate, fly over, install cables and marine ducts, as well as to exploit the minerals found in the soil and marine subsoil. Timor-Leste and Australia are separated by less than 400 miles away, and for this reason this rule does not solve conflicts over borders between the two nations. [27] Timorese and Australians are peoples belonging to states with adjacent or situated front-to-face coasts. They do not meet the limits set by the United Nations Convention for the Application of The Rights of the Sea, related to the sovereignty of the State in the territorial sea. The distance from the coastal coast between the countries is 300 miles. These countries must delimit maritime borders by agreement, as determined by https://www.nucleodoconhecimento.com.br RC: 45093 Disponível em: https://www.nucleodoconhecimento.com.br/law/international-public-law the rules of international law. Nations must achieve a fair, fair and equivalent solution. [28] The Geneva Convention has criteria for parallel delimitation. The median line method is used in special circumstances for states with opposite backs. It regulates a readjustment of the median line between countries. The Convention on the Law of the Sea states that, in view of the lack of a distance of 400 miles for separation between two countries, the principle of equidistance should be used. [29] The Oil Industry is extremely important. Today's society depends on it and its derivatives. It is a fossil fuel, an electric energy source for most developed and developing countries. It is essential for manufacturing a range of products such as diesel, kerosene and gasoline. It is also present in inputs and in the petrochemical industry, through paraffin and naphtha. Many medicines have in their composition petroleum derivatives. It is impossible to reflect on the current molds of human life without asphalt, plastics and aspirin. Oil can be observed in fuels used for people's locomotion. It is contained in a multitude of chemicals and petrochemicals fundamental to the development of a nation. Because of its vast applicability and because it is a exhausting source of energy, Australians have ignored International Sea law for many years. They withdrew from THE UNDP to prevent the Timorese people from being entitled to profits on the exploitation of oil companies Bayu Undan and Greater Sunrise. [30] Due to the importance of oil, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries  transportation and resale of oil, but only a small part of the fruits of the extraction was intended for the producing States. Currently, the United Nations also observes the actions of oil companies so that an appropriate agreement can occur between producing states and oil extractor companies. [31] Timor-Leste has been explored for decades by Australia. This conduct was substantially driven by economic reasons, due to interest in the wealth of timorese sea territory. It is not new that the Oil Industry is motivated to remove Australia from the international community. Australians have not been willing to deal with matters related to the Rights of the Sea. Interest in profits over the extraction of oil and natural gas from the region belonging to Timor-Leste prevented there from reaching an agreement between the two nations for many years.  Greater Sunrise oil field is located in the so-called Area The Cooperation Zone and, according to UNCLOS, this territory also belongs to the Timorese people. [35] Oil is a wealth that lies in abundance in Timor-Leste. The mediated line must be traced to define maritime space between two countries that separate for less than 400 nautical miles. Natural gas and oil reservoirs were found by Australian companies in Timor-Leste, before their independence. For this reason, Australians have had a lot of resistance to a definitive treaty on the right to exploitation of the Timorese Sea. The https://www.nucleodoconhecimento.com.br RC: 45093 Disponível em: https://www.nucleodoconhecimento.com.br/law/international-public-law difficulties faced by these people to obtain their maritime rights are important issues.
Analyzing the details that preceded the definitive treaty carried out in 2018, which deals with Timorese borders, is essential to understand the proportion of developments that this pact means. [36]

TREATY BETWEEN AUSTRALIA AND TIMOR-LESTE
In 2002, Timor-Leste gained its independence from Indonesia, but since that year, the definitive Maritime Borders of Timore have not been demarcated. Australians, for many years, have no interest in dealing with timor-leste maritime boundaries, observing international law standards. They intended to remain using the resources of the sea that did not belong to them. Although they caused damage to the development of Timor-Leste in several areas for a long time, the pact has not foreseen the compensation of the damage caused since 2002. [37] The Timorese people will not be reimbursed for the damage caused to their evolution in the areas of education, social, economic, political, among others that require minimal financial resources to occur. But when the pact was carried out, it was observed that Timor-Leste has been greatly harmed over the years by Australia. [38] In order to encourage the development, industrial, technological and economic of timorese, it was agreed that the company that would carry out the exploration of Greater Sunrise would have to hire the citizens of Timor-Leste, facilitating them training encouraging the development of their studies, as well as it would have the duty to adopt the country as the first option for the acquisition of goods and services. [39] In order to avoid economic loss, Australia withdrew from several International Treaties of which it was integral months before the independence of Timor-Leste. [40] In order to prevent either country from failing to observe the pact in the future, nations stipulated that the treaty would not be subject to a unilateral right to denunciation, withdrawal or suspension. In the text of the document, it was clarified that all clauses expressed in the treaty and annexes are part of the pact and cannot be ignored or highlighted. In Timor-Leste and Australia relaxed their interests to resolve the disagreements that prevented them from agreeing. In the maritime territorial area where Greater Sunrise is located, it was agreed that it would belong to each of the countries involved in the https://www.nucleodoconhecimento.com.br RC: 45093 Disponível em: https://www.nucleodoconhecimento.com.br/law/international-public-law agreement to half the results of the operation of that maritime territorial region. The Bayu-Undan, Buffalo and Kitan camps fully integrated timorese territory. [45] The ways that revenues would be shared between Timor-Leste and Australia were not defined, as they would depend on several factors. The greater the ability to develop techniques and apply them, the higher their profits would be. According to ways of exploring the Greater Sunrise fields, the results would be shared. In the year in which the pact occurred, it was agreed that oil field revenues would belong 30% to Australia and 70% for Timor-Leste if there was an increase in exploration through the development of gas pipeline for the Timorese people. It was also predicted that, in the event that the Greater Sunrise fields will be developed through a Pipeline to Australia, the percentages would be modified, belonging to 20% for Australians and 80% for Timorese. [46] In the definitive treaty on borders, according to art. 12 of the legal document, it was defined that the exploration of gas and oil in the Greater Sunrise field region would depend on the definition between the parties on the development plan. It turns out that after the start of the exploration activities of the sea region that would have shared revenues, the contracted company would submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the country where it is located. The Supervisory Board of two representatives from Timor-Leste and a representative from Australia would be established. In order to find solutions to litigation, there would be an Independent Conflict Resolution Committee for decisions on the strategies adopted for the exploration of the oil field referred to above. [47] For decades, Australia has demonstrated its intention to make profits from the exploitation of oil fields in full. International intervention was needed to reduce the conflict over borders between Timorese and Australians. The definitive Treaty on Borders deals with the median line and lateral limits on the territory of Timor-Leste and shares revenues from an oil region between the countries involved. But this pact does not extinguish the possibility of future conflicts over profits from the Greater Sunrise fields. Many questions were pending clarification, requiring concrete conflicts to arise for positions to be adopted. Faced with this new situation, the Timorese people will RC: 45093 Disponível em: https://www.nucleodoconhecimento.com.br/law/international-public-law The exploration of the maritime economy is also crucial for the evolution of the Timorese nation. Many people depend on the sea and support themselves with the resources generated by fishing and harvesting marine species. It turns out that, in the maritime territory of that country, there is a natural passage of fish. And through the developments brought by the definitive pact on borders, several species of fish could be exploited by national industries. In addition to the increase in revenue for the emergence of industries interested in the many species of schools that that region has, this nation is located in the Coral Triangle. This is a cultural heritage that can be appreciated by tourism, as well as it can serve as an interest to scientific research. The above characteristics may generate the direct and indirect increase in resources for the State, provided that appropriate administrative measures occur. [59] The infrastructure of Timorese ports and airports is also fundamental for country growth. The parameters of strategic constructions must monitor the needs of navigations of the global scenario that the Timorese territory may transit through the Timorese territory. The ports of Dili, Oe-cusse, Hera, Caravela and Com currently have inadequate characteristics, requiring investments to be considered as industrial centers. This evolution will create opportunities for Timor-Leste to become a transit of oil tanker cargo, as well as making it a nation possessing a large industrial hub that connects the Pacific and Indian Oceans. [60] Timor-Leste needs to continue advancing in many areas. The agricultural, oil, maritime, tourist, educational, legal, political and economic sectors need transformations. There is already a development policy plan that was created in 2011.
However, it is necessary to adapt it to the new reality in which the country is located, after the changes that occurred by the definition of its final maritime borders. [61] Specific strategies for each sector will need to be retraced on an internal national level. And, based on these new objectives, the positions with oil and gas exploration companies should be adopted, just as all decisions of the State will be in order to achieve these growth goals. [62] https://www.nucleodoconhecimento.com.br RC