Timor Leste: A new frontier

THE WORLD'S newest nation launched its first upstream licensing round last month. The Timor Sea acreage, mostly unexplored since the 1970s, is expected to be sought after, judging by the country's proximity to world-class oil and gas fields. The acreage on offer is within a 30,000 square km area off the south coast of the Timor Trench and to the north of the Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA) that East Timor shares uneasily with Australia. Comprising 11 offshore blocks in water depths of up to 3,000 metres, the blocks are in "Asia's last hydrocarbons frontier", according to the government. It says it has identified major seeps of light sweet oil in the north of the Trench and active gas