The above companies are thus awarded the right and are obligated to enter into a Production Sharing Contract with the Ministry of Natural Resources, Minerals and Energy Policy scheduled to be completed in accordance with the Final Tender Protocol and applicable regulations on 20 June 2006.

There is however a condition placed on the award of Contract Area E to Eni S.p.A.  In addition to the work programme proposed in the bid, Eni S.p.A will be requested to include a well to be drilled in Year 3 of the Production Sharing Contract to a depth of 4000m.

The bidders offered the following work programmes:

The deadline for international companies to bid for Timor-Leste offshore acreage was 19 April 2006. From the eleven contract areas available in this first bidding round, six received offers from the international companies through a total of nine bids.

The ratification decision, a summary of the proposed evaluation results and a significant summary of the Evaluation Report will be published in the Jornal da Républica and on the web site of Ministry of Natural Resources, Minerals and Energy Policy; http://www.timor-leste.gov.tl/EMRD/. The Petroleum Act, Bidding Round Regulations and the Final Tender Protocol can be also found on the website.

Timor-Leste became the world’s newest nation in May 2002, and less than two years later made its debut as a significant petroleum producer with first production from the Bayu-Undan Field, a joint development with Australia pursuant to which Timor-Leste receives 90% of the state take from production.

To build on this success, the Government of Timor-Leste opened a significant portion of the nation’s offshore area to petroleum exploration and development by qualified companies.

Dili, 22 May 2006

For further information please contact the Media Advisor: Rui Flores (tel. +670 723 01 40 or rui.flores@gmail.com)