COLUMN | The Twelve Days of Christmas 2025: Days 4 to 6 – Six Noble rigs-a-selling, Five million tons of Sunrise LNG and a four per cent stock rise for TotalEnergies (part one of two) [Offshore Accounts]

Over the borderline – but where?

When Greater Sunrise were discovered, the maritime boundary between Indonesia and Australia had been agreed a couple of years before, but Portugal had never confirmed the boundary between its colony and Australia, creating a blank space in maps for the undefined border, a blank known as the “Timor Gap” in which the gas fields lay.

No matter, in 1979 Australia decided to recognise Indonesia’s annexation of Timor-Leste, so it could negotiate and finalise the maritime boundary to close the Timor Gap and permit the development of Greater Sunrise by Woodside once an agreement with Indonesia could be reached.

In 1989, Australia and Indonesia signed the Timor Gap Treaty. The treaty established a zone of cooperation (ZOC) between Timor-Leste and Australia (later called the JPDA), north of the median line between Timor and Australia. The treaty provided for joint Indonesia-Australia exploration of the waters, with revenues to be shared 50/50 between the two states.

Unfortunately for Indonesia, the country was hard-hit by the Asian financial crisis of 1997 and plunged into political turmoil when its dictator, President Suharto, was toppled amid riots in 1998. His successor, B. J. Habibie, organised a referendum under the sponsorship of the United Nations on whether Timor-Leste should remain in Indonesia or become independent.

Freedom at a price

In 1999, an overwhelming majority of Timor-Leste’s population voted for independence from Indonesia. This prompted anti-independence Timorese militias, organised and supported by the Indonesian military, to embark on an orgy of violence.

The pro-Indonesian forces killed over 1,000 Timorese and drove another 300,000 people into the neighbouring Indonesian province of West Timor as refugees to escape the killing. The militias also destroyed the country's infrastructure. However, finally, Timor-Leste was internationally recognised as an independent nation in 2002.