Melbourne, Australia - On 28th of February 2017, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Institute of Petroleum and Geology (IPG) and the Melbourne University at The Melbourne University House Melbourne, Victoria.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by His Excellency Mr. Alfredo Pires, Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of RDTL, the MoU was signed by Mr. Helio Casimiro Guterres, President of IPG and Professor Jim McCluskey, Acting Vice Chancellor and Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research of Melbourne University.

Ministry of Petroleum and Minearal Resources of RDTL, His Excellency Alfredo Pires said “The Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of RDTL is incredibly proud and extremely grateful for the collaboration between IPG and Melbourne University in the area of Geosciences. I wish the partnership yield fruitful success – and look forward to both IPG and Melbourne University to further broaden Geosciences exchange and research collaboration area between Timor Leste and Australia”.

Mr. Helio Guterres, President of IPG quoted “This collaboration marked a new era for IPG advance development and represents unprecedented long-term commitment by both IPG and The Melbourne University on the strengthening of human resources capacity in the area of geosciences, geochemical, and analytical laboratory test and also exchange of expertises through training and advocacy.

Professor Jim McCluskey said “I’m delighted to sign off this agreement with IPG. On behalf of  Melbourne University, I would like to extend our continued support and sincere thanks to IPG and in particular Mr. Helio Guterres, President of IPG and His Excellency Mr. Alfredo Pires, Ministry of Petroleum  and Mineral Resources of RDTL for the excellent support they have provided for Geoscience collaborative works in Timor Leste and we look forward to working with our scientific partners in Timor Leste to achieve even greater success in the future.”

After the signing ceremony, Professor Jim McCluskey of Melbourne University symbocally presented His Excelency Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of RDTL a Laclo geological map with the scale of 1:50.000 that developed in a joint collaboration between IPG and Melbourne University.

About IPG

Instituto do Petroleo e Geologia - Instituto Publico (IPG) is Timor Leste public institution, established under the Decree Law no.33/2012 of 18th July aims at recording, producing, managing, storing and disseminating information on the geology sector, not to exclude geological risk study and development, including information on the potentiality of oil resources, gas and mineral exploitation. It also tasked for the coordination and promotion of any activity aiming at the production of geological information, including maritime areas, and the establishment of a National Register Data related to these geological and natural resources of Timor-Leste. For more information about IPG, visit www.ipg.tl.
###