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The Timor Sea (; ) is a sea bounded to the north by the island of Timor
Timor

Timor is an island at the south end of the Malay Archipelago, north of the Timor Sea. It is divided between the independent state of East Timor, , and West Timor, belonging to the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara....
, to the east by the Arafura Sea
Arafura Sea

The Arafura Sea lies west of the Pacific Ocean overlying the continental shelf between Australia and New Guinea. It is bordered by Torres Strait and through that the Coral Sea to the east, the Gulf of Carpentaria to the south, the Timor Sea to the west and the Banda Sea and Ceram Sea seas to the northwest....
, to the south by Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
 and to the west by the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering about 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by Asia ; on the west by Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean ....
.

waters to the east are known as the Arafura Sea
Arafura Sea

The Arafura Sea lies west of the Pacific Ocean overlying the continental shelf between Australia and New Guinea. It is bordered by Torres Strait and through that the Coral Sea to the east, the Gulf of Carpentaria to the south, the Timor Sea to the west and the Banda Sea and Ceram Sea seas to the northwest....
. The Timor Sea is adjacent to two substantial inlets on the north Australian coast, the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf
Joseph Bonaparte Gulf

Joseph Bonaparte Gulf is a large body of water off the coast of the Northern Territory, Australia. It is named after Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon and King of Naples and then Spain ....
 and the Van Diemen Gulf
Van Diemen Gulf

Van Diemen Gulf is a gulf between Arnhem Land, of the attached Cobourg Peninsula and Melville Island, Northern Territory in northern Australia....
. The Australian city of Darwin
Darwin, Northern Territory

Darwin is the List of Australian capital cities of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 120,900, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely peopled Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities....
 is the only large city to adjoin the sea.

The sea is about 480 km (300 statute miles) wide, covering an area of about 610,000 kmē.






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The Timor Sea (; ) is a sea bounded to the north by the island of Timor
Timor

Timor is an island at the south end of the Malay Archipelago, north of the Timor Sea. It is divided between the independent state of East Timor, , and West Timor, belonging to the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara....
, to the east by the Arafura Sea
Arafura Sea

The Arafura Sea lies west of the Pacific Ocean overlying the continental shelf between Australia and New Guinea. It is bordered by Torres Strait and through that the Coral Sea to the east, the Gulf of Carpentaria to the south, the Timor Sea to the west and the Banda Sea and Ceram Sea seas to the northwest....
, to the south by Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
 and to the west by the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering about 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by Asia ; on the west by Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean ....
.

Geography

The waters to the east are known as the Arafura Sea
Arafura Sea

The Arafura Sea lies west of the Pacific Ocean overlying the continental shelf between Australia and New Guinea. It is bordered by Torres Strait and through that the Coral Sea to the east, the Gulf of Carpentaria to the south, the Timor Sea to the west and the Banda Sea and Ceram Sea seas to the northwest....
. The Timor Sea is adjacent to two substantial inlets on the north Australian coast, the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf
Joseph Bonaparte Gulf

Joseph Bonaparte Gulf is a large body of water off the coast of the Northern Territory, Australia. It is named after Joseph Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon and King of Naples and then Spain ....
 and the Van Diemen Gulf
Van Diemen Gulf

Van Diemen Gulf is a gulf between Arnhem Land, of the attached Cobourg Peninsula and Melville Island, Northern Territory in northern Australia....
. The Australian city of Darwin
Darwin, Northern Territory

Darwin is the List of Australian capital cities of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 120,900, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely peopled Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities....
 is the only large city to adjoin the sea.

The sea is about 480 km (300 statute miles) wide, covering an area of about 610,000 kmē. (235,000 square miles). Its deepest point is the Timor Trough (which some geologists consider is the south-eastern extension of the Java Trench
Java Trench

File:Neic slav fig72.gifThe Java Trench, also called Sunda Trench, located in the northeastern Indian Ocean, with a length of 2,600 km and a maximum depth of 7,725 meters , is the deepest point in the Indian Ocean....
, but others view as a foreland trough to the Timor Island "mountain range"), located in the northern part of the sea, which reaches a depth of 3,300 m (10,800 ft). The remainder of the sea is much shallower, much of it averaging less than 200 m (650 ft) deep, as it overlies the Sahul Shelf
Sahul Shelf

The Sahul Shelf is part of the continental shelf of Australia and lies off the northern coast of Australia. The Sahul Shelf proper stretches northwest from Australia much of the way under the Timor Sea towards Timor, ending where the seabed begins descending into the Timor Trough....
, part of the Australian continental shelf
Continental shelf

The continental shelf is the extended perimeter of each continent and associated coastal plain, and was part of the continent during the glacial periods, but is undersea during Ice age such as the current epoch by relatively shallow seas and Bay....
.

Many tropical storms and cyclone
Cyclone

In meteorology, a cyclone refers to an area of closed, circular fluid motion rotating in the same direction as the Earth's rotation. This is usually characterized by inward spiraling winds that rotate counter clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere of the Earth....
s originate or pass through the Timor Sea. In February 2005, Tropical Cyclone Vivienne disrupted oil and gas production facilities in the area, and the next month, Severe Tropical Cyclone Willy interrupted production. . The petroleum production facilities are designed to withstand the effects of cyclones, although as a safety precaution production is usually reduced or temporarily halted and workers evacuated by helicopter to the mainland - usually to Darwin or Dili
Dili

Dili, also spelled D?li, is the Capital and largest city of East Timor. It lies on the northern coast of Timor island, the easternmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands....
.

Reefs and islands

A number of significant islands are located in the sea, notably Melville Island, part of the Tiwi Islands
Tiwi Islands

The Tiwi Islands are located in Australia's Northern Territory 80 km north of Darwin, Northern Territory at the junction of the Arafura Sea and Timor Sea....
, off Australia and the Australian-governed Ashmore and Cartier Islands
Ashmore and Cartier Islands

The Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands are two groups of small low-lying uninhabited tropical islands in the Indian Ocean situated on the edge of the continental shelf north-west of Australia and south of the Indonesian island of Rote Island at ....
. It is thought that early humans reached Australia by "island-hopping" across the Timor Sea.

Scott and Seringapatam Reefs
Scott and Seringapatam Reefs

Scott and Seringapatam Reefs is a group of atoll-like reefs in the Timor Sea more than 300 km northwest of Cape Leveque, Western Australia, on the edge of the continental shelf....
 formed in the area and to the west on the same underwater platform is the Rowley Shoals
Rowley Shoals

The Rowley Shoals is a group of three atoll-like coral reefs south of the Timor Sea, about 260 km west of Broome on the northwestern Australian coast, centered around , on the edge of one of the widest continental shelf in the world....
.

The Timor Current

The Timor Current is an oceanic current that runs south-west in the Timor Sea between the Indonesia archipelago and Australia. It is a major contributor to the Indonesian throughflow
Indonesian throughflow

The Indonesian Throughflow is an ocean current that transports water between the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean through the Indonesian Archipelago....
 that transports water from the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. Its name is derived from the Latin name Mare Pacificum, "peaceful sea", bestowed upon it by the Portugal explorer Ferdinand Magellan....
 to the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering about 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by Asia ; on the west by Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and Australia; and on the south by the Southern Ocean ....
.

Hydrocarbon reserves

Beneath the Timor Sea lie considerable reserves of oil
Petroleum

Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid found in rock formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights, plus other organic compounds....
 and gas
Gas

In physics, a gas is a state of matter, consisting of a collection of particles without a definite shape or volume that are in more or less random motion....
. A number of offshore petroleum projects are in operation and there is considerable exploration activity either underway and numerous projects proposed for the future.

Bayu-Undan project

The largest petroleum project in operation in the Timor Sea is the Bayu-Undan project operated by ConocoPhillips
ConocoPhillips

ConocoPhillips Company is an international energy corporation with its headquarters located in Houston, Texas. It is the fifth largest private sector energy corporation in the world and is one of the six "supermajor" vertically integrated oil companies....
. The Bayu-Undan field is located approximately 500 km north-west of Darwin
Darwin, Northern Territory

Darwin is the List of Australian capital cities of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 120,900, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely peopled Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities....
. Production commenced in 2004 as a gas recycle project - with liquids (condensate, propane and butane) being stripped from the raw production stream and exported. Gas was pumped back down into the reservoir. At around the same time, construction commenced on a 500 km subsea natural gas pipeline
Pipeline

Pipeline may refer to:* Pipeline transport, a conduit made from pipes connected end-to-end for long-distance fluid transport* Plastic Pressure Pipe Systems, for fluid handling...
 connecting the Bayu-Undan processing facility to a liquefied natural gas plant situated at Wickham Point in Darwin
Darwin, Northern Territory

Darwin is the List of Australian capital cities of the Northern Territory, Australia. Situated on the Timor Sea, Darwin has a population of 120,900, making it by far the largest and most populated city in the sparsely peopled Northern Territory, but the least populous of all Australia's capital cities....
 harbour. Since the completion of the pipeline and the Darwin LNG plant in 2006, gas produced offshore at Bayu-Undan is now transported to the Darwin plant where it is converted into a liquid and transported to Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
 under long-term sales contracts.

Other projects

The Greater Sunrise gas field, discovered in 1974, is one of the largest in the area and is expected to earn East Timor several billion dollars in royalty revenues. AED Oil
AED Oil Limited

AED Oil Limited is an oil exploration and production company based in Australia.It is listed on the Australian Stock Exchange with the code AED, and is a component of the S&P/ASX 200 index....
 owns the large oil project at Puffin oilfield and Woodside Petroleum
Woodside Petroleum

Woodside Petroleum Limited is an Australian petroleum exploration and production company. It is a public company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange and has its headquarters in Perth, Western Australia, Western Australia....
 is producing oil at the Laminaria oilfield.

Territorial dispute

Since discovery of petroleum in the Timor Sea in the 1970s, there have been disputes surrounding rights to ownership and exploitation of the resources situated in a part of the Timor Sea known as the Timor Gap
Timor Gap

The Timor Gap is often used to refer to an area of ocean between Timor, Indonesia and Australia. In actuality, it refers to a gap in a Australia-Indonesia border which Australia and Indonesia negotiated in 1972 -- the part of the line they could not define because, Portugal, the then-ruler of East Timor, declined to participate in the negot...
, which is the area of the Timor Sea which lies outside the territorial boundaries of the nations to the north and south of the Timor Sea. These disagreements initially involved Australia and Indonesia, although a resolution was eventually reached in the form of the Timor Gap Treaty
Timor Gap Treaty

Officially known as the Treaty between Australia and the Republic of Indonesia on the zone of cooperation in an area between the Indonesian province of East Timor and Northern Australia, the Timor Gap Treaty is a treaty between the governments of Australia and Indonesia....
. After declaration of East Timor's nationhood in 1999, the terms of the Timor Gap Treaty were abandoned and negotiations commenced between Australia and East Timor, culminating in the Timor Sea Treaty
Timor Sea Treaty

Formally known as the Timor Sea Treaty between the Government of East Timor and the Government of Australia was signed between Australia and East Timor in Dili, East Timor on May 20, 2002, the day East Timor attained its independence from United Nations rule, for joint petroleum exploration of the Timor Sea by the two countries....
.

Australia's territorial claim extends to the bathymetric axis (the line of greatest sea-bed depth) at the Timor Trough. It overlaps East Timor's own territorial claim, which follows the former colonial power Portugal
Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Located in southwestern Europe, Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east....
 in claiming that the dividing line should be midway between the two countries.

Timor Sea Treaty

The Timor Sea Treaty
Timor Sea Treaty

Formally known as the Timor Sea Treaty between the Government of East Timor and the Government of Australia was signed between Australia and East Timor in Dili, East Timor on May 20, 2002, the day East Timor attained its independence from United Nations rule, for joint petroleum exploration of the Timor Sea by the two countries....
, which was signed on the 20 May 2002, led to the establishment of the Timor Sea Designated Authority (TSDA). This organisation is responsible for the administration of all petroleum-related activities in a part of the Timor Sea known as the Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA). Under the terms of the treaty, royalties on petroleum production in the JPDA are split in a 90:10 ratio between East Timor
East Timor

East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro Island and Jaco , and Oecussi-Ambeno, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island, within Indonesian West Timor....
 and Australia
Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
.

World War II

During the 1940s the Japanese navy
Axis naval activity in Australian waters

Although Australia was remote from the main battlefronts, there was considerable Axis powers naval activity in Australian waters during World War II....
 conducted air raids on Australia from ships in the Timor Sea. On the 19 February 1942 the Japanese aircraft carrier Kaga
Japanese aircraft carrier Kaga

Kaga was an aircraft carrier of the Imperial Japanese Navy, originally intended as a Tosa class battleship fast battleship. She took part in the battle of Pearl Harbor and was sunk at the Battle of Midway on 4 June 1942....
 with other vessels, launched air strikes against Darwin, Australia, sinking nine ships, including the USS Peary. This bombing marked the beginning of the Battle of Timor in the Pacific theatre
Pacific War

The Pacific War was the part of World War II?and preceding conflicts?that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, between July 7, 1937 and August 14, 1945....
 of World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
.

See also

  • Banda Sea
    Banda Sea

    The Banda Sea is the sea of the South Moluccas in Indonesia, technically part of the Pacific Ocean but separated from it by hundreds of islands, as well as the Halmahera Sea and Ceram Seas....
  • The great Jukung race
    Jukung

    A jukung is a small, wooden Indonesian boat. It is traditionally used for fishing, but newer uses include "Jukung Dives", using the boat as a vehicle for small groups of Scuba diving....


External links

  • Khamsi, Kathryn (2005). . Harvard Asia Quarterly 9 (1) 6-23.