By Law 6/2019, of 4th December 2019, the National Parliament approved a second amendment to the Petroleum Act (Law 13/2005, of 2 September

2005, as amend by Law 1/2019, of 18th January 2019), which entered into force on the 5th December 2019.

This Second Amendment reflects into the Petroleum Act the provisions of the recent (i) Maritime Boundary Treaty entered into between Timor-Leste and Australia, which superseded the Timor Sea Treaty, and (ii) the Decree-Law on Offshore Petroleum Operations, already taking also into consideration some features of the draft Decree-Law on Onshore Petroleum Operations, currently still under discussion.

The most relevant amendments include:

• the State’s participation in Petroleum Activities;

• the procurement of Timor-Leste goods and services;

• the carrying out of maritime operations, directly or indirectly related to Petroleum and

• the use of Suai Supply Base facilities for Petroleum Activities.

Further to the launching of the 2019-2020 Second Licensing Round, Timor-Leste recently issued the pre-qualification guidelines for the award of petroleum contracts in 18 new Blocks (both onshore and offshore).