Oil and Custom: Impacts of the Tasi Mane Oil Project on Local Communities in Suai, Timor-Leste

Fiat speech, fiat infrastructure

“…The government's drive to fuel national development through investment in oil and gas has produced warnings that Timor‐Leste might be subject to the “resource curse” (Scheiner, 2015) and that government institutions are starting to suffer from some of the democratic deficits common in rentier economies (Neves, 2018). Others have emphasized the potentially detrimental environmental impact of onshore oil development (Fundasaun Mahein, 2013), the risk of intercommunal conflicts (Crespi & Guillaud, 2018), and social problems of joblessness and landlessness that often characterize oil infrastructure development (Cryan, 2015). Finally, the Tasi Mane project has long depended on the outcome of boundary negotiations with Australia.…”

Economic Diversity In Contemporary Timor-Leste

“…This national cadastre is based on the user rights, and does not have the capacity or the purpose to register the various interlocking land rights that form the customary system. However, this register process by Timor Gap was revealing and, moreover, "a catalyst" for the tensions between users, since it exposed the intersection and overlapping of several types of rights that coexist in the customary system (crespi 2018;rose 2017;cryan 2015b;, as well as the contradictions in the rules management of resources and spaces between the State and local communities (customary management). More precisely, the transition from an oral system to a written, individual and property title system, was equivalent to moving from a "commons" possession to a private property.…”

“…This fragile situation, associated with a strong dependence on oil, creates a sense of insecurity for the local inhabitants. Much of this process is taking place very rapidly and takes little account of the demands and needs of local society(crespi and Guillaud 2018).This chapter discusses the impacts of the building of the Suai Supply Base on the economic dynamics of Kamanasa kingdom. It focuses on issues related to land appropriation by the State by exploring phenomena related to diet and increased monetisation, on the basis of information produced during 11 months of fieldwork, divided into several stays between 2015 and 2016, and two other visits in May 2014 and november 2018.1 The Tasi Mane infrastructure project, implemented by the national oil company Timor Gap, occupies three areas: Beaço (gas processing), Betano (oil refinery) and Suai-covalima (oil industries and storage).…”

Can Oil Speak? On the Production of Ontological Difference and Ambivalence in Extractive Encounters

“…The identification and mapping of land claims, carried out by an inter-ministerial task force, and the subsequent payment of large sums of financial compensation for several hundred households whose land is affected, has been controversial. This process has brought conflicting and overlapping claims to landownership to the fore and has created some severe inter-communal disagreement, especially amongst original landowners and populations who were moved to affected areas due to recent historical circumstances (Crespi and Guillaud 2018).…”