The duration of the Treaty is set out in Article 12 as being “until the date
50 years after its entry into force, or until the date five years after the exploita-tion of the Unit Area ceases, whichever occurs earlier.”
The duration of the Treaty so specified is, however, subject to some safeguards, in order to avoid
the dire scenario for East Timor, and, to a much lesser extent, for Australia,
where the parties would gain nothing if the Sunrise development did not, for
some reason, go ahead. Article 12(2) of CMATS provides that if either a
development plan has not been approved within six years, or production of
petroleum from the Unit Area has not commenced within ten years of the
Treaty entering into force, then either party may notify the other in writing
that they wish to terminate the Treaty. Such a termination would come into
effect three months after such a notification.
In addition, CMATS serves toamend the Timor Sea Treaty and to link its duration to that of CMATS. Article 3
of CMATS excises Article 22 of the Timor Sea Treaty dealing with the dura-tion of that agreement and substitutes new text stating that the Timor Sea Treaty will be in force “for the duration of ” CMATS