 The Laminaria-Corallina oil field in the Timor Sea is just outside the Joint Petroleum Development Area, twice as close to Timor-Leste as it is to Australia. It belongs to Timor-Leste under current international legal principles (UNCLOS). Laminaria-Corallina has produced 203 million barrels of oil since starting production in late 1999. Australia has made more than two billion dollars from this field, but Timor-Leste has not received one cent.The field is almost entirely depleted, but production could continue for a while. Woodside's reserve estimates for the end of 2015 said that Laminaria-Corallina contains less than 0.5 million recoverable barrels. How much money has Australia taken from Timor-Leste? Our very conservative calculations show that Australia received more than $2.2 billion U.S. dollars in government revenues from Laminaria-Corallina through the end of 2015, and the actual figure is significantly higher. Until 2005, Woodside’s ownership share of the two joint ventures was 44.9% of Laminaria and 50% of Corallina, a 47.9% portion of the unified field production. In 2005, Woodside purchased an additional share in Laminaria from Shell. Since then, Woodside's share is 59.9% of Laminaria and 66.67% of Corallina, amounting to about 66% of total production. The other shares in these fields are owned by the Canadian company Talisman Resources, which bought Paladin in 2005. In April 2014, Talisman said it wanted to sell them, and two months later, Bloomberg reported on the ongoing process. In May 2015, the entire Talisman company was acquired by Repsol. In June 2015, the West Australian reported that Woodside was also looking to sell its portion. The sale was finalized to an unnamed buyer on 29 September, and transfer of ownership is expected in the second quarter of 2016. The West Australian "understands" that the price (including the FPSO) will be AUD $100-$300 million, and the buyer is the "low-profile Brisbane company Westside." Woodside's 2015 Annual Report said "In September 2015, Woodside entered into a conditional agreement to sell interests in the Laminaria-Corallina Joint Venture, and the parties are working towards satisfaction of the conditions to enable closing of the transaction." The deal to sell the field was finalized and announced (also Tetum) in May 2016, with both Woodside and Talisman selling their holdings to Northern Oil & Gas Australia (NOGA), a new company owned by former WestSide founder Angus Karoll. Because the new owner is not traded on the Australian Stock Exchange, we are no longer able to get information about sales and production from Laminaria-Corallina, but they are much less than previous levels. In July 2019, Australian authorities shut down production due to environmental and safety violations, causing NOGA management to turn over control to KPMG. In February 2020 NOGA went into liquidation, leaving Australia on the hook for about $200 million in clean-up costs -- approximately one-tenth of what they received from the field. As this territory will eventually be part of Timor-Leste under the 2019 Maritime Boundary Treaty, we hope that Canberra turns it over in a safe, stable and clean condition. More and updated information on this sorry saga is here. During its 15-year production history, Laminaria-Corallina generated about $6.8 billion in sales, of which about $2.2 billion was paid to the Australian government. Timor-Leste got nothing. The following table gives Woodside’s sales revenues from Laminaria-Corallina for each year from 1999 through 2016. From this, we can calculate the total income to all joint venture partners from these fields, and approximate the tax they would have paid to the Australian government. |  Kampu mina-rai Laminaria-Corallina iha Tasi Timor ne’e laos iha Area Dezenvolvimentu Petroleu Konjunta (JPDA) nia laran, besik liu dala rua ba Timor-Leste duke ba Australia. Kampu ida ne’e Timor-Leste nian tuir prinsipiu legal internasional (UNCLOS) nian. Kampu mina-rai Laminaria-Corallina produs mina-rai baril tokon 203 hafoin hahuu produsaun iha tinan 1999 nia klaran. Australia hetan osan biliaun rua dolares husi kampu mina-rai ida ne’e, maibe Timor-Leste rasik lahetan centavos ida husi kampu ne’e.Kampu mina ne'e besik atu hotu, maibe produsaun bele kontinua. Woodside estimatiza reserva bainhira tinan 2015 remata hanesan tokon 0.5 barril. Hira mak Australia hetan? Kalkulasuan tuir mai ne’e konservativu liu hodi hatudu katak Australia hetan liu US$2.2 biliaun ba iha rendimentu governu nian husi Laminaria-Corallina too iha tinan 2015 nia rohan, no figura atual nian boot liu. Molok 2005, Woodside iha 44.9% saham iha konsorsiu konjunta nian ba Laminaria no 50% iha Corallina. Proporsaun 47.9% ida ne’e nafatin too iha 11 Marsu 2005, wainhira Woodside aumenta saham adisional ida iha Laminaria husi Shell. Hahu husi loron ne’eba, Woodside nia saham 59.9% ba Laminaria no 66.67% ba Corallina, hodi soma to 66% ba total produsaun nian. Tabela tuir mai ne’e atu hatudu rendimentu Woodside nian, ne’ebe nia hetan husi Laminaria-Corallina ba kada tinan ida husi 1999 to 2016. Husi ida ne’e, ami bele kalkula rendimentu total ba parseiru konsorsiu konjunta tomak husi kampu minarai ida ne’e, no estimatiza taxa ne’ebe sira selu ba iha Governu Australia. |
