CHINA SEEKS ‘PRUDENT’ OIL EXPLORATION WITH PH
BEIJING— China will prudently advance cooperation with the Philippines on joint oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea, State Councilor Wang Yi, the top Chinese diplomat, said on Wednesday after meeting with Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano.
Any potential deal between Manila and Beijing on energy exploration in the disputed waterway should be agreed with a company and not the Chinese government, a senior Philippine official said earlier this month.
China claims most of the South China Sea, a key trade route and home to areas that are believed to hold large quantities of oil and natural gas.
Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan also claim all or part of the South China Sea, and pro- posed cooperation between the Philippines and China has caused alarm among the Southeast Asian claimants in the past.
Friendship, cooperation
The Philippines and China agreed last month to set up a special panel to work out how they could jointly explore offshore oil and gas in areas both sides claim, without needing to deal with the touchy issue of sovereignty.
Speaking to reporters in Beijing after meeting with Foreign Secretary Cayetano, Wang said the South China Sea would be turned into a source of friendship and cooperation.
“The South China Sea disputes will no longer be a source of negative energy blocking the development of bilateral ties,” he said.
“We will enhance maritime dialogue and pursue equal footed and friendly consultation and in a prudent and steady way advance cooperation on offshore oil and gas exploration,” Wang said, without giving details.
Complex, sensitive
Pursuing a joint project, however, would be extremely complex and sensitive, as sharing oil and gas reserves could be seen as endorsing the other countries’ claims.
“The Philippines and China are finding a common legal framework to conduct joint exploration and surveys. And with our discussions today I’m confident that we will find a suitable legal framework for our differences,” Cayetano said.
Philippine President Duterte has said China is proposing joint exploration that is “like co-ownership” and better than Manila and Beijing fighting over territory in the South China Sea.
The Philippines, China’s CNOOC Ltd. and state-owned PetroVietnam jointly surveyed Recto Bank from 2003 to 2008.
The Philippines suspended exploration in Recto Bank (international name: Reed Bank) in 2014 to pursue a legal challenge to China’s territorial claims.
Included in a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague was a clarification of Manila’s sovereign right to access offshore oil and gas fields, including Recto Bank, within its 370-kilometer exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea called West Philippine Sea.
Beijing, however, rejected the tribunal’s ruling that invalidated its claim to almost all of the South China Sea.
Even so, President Duterte has pushed for closer relations with Beijing, playing down the dispute over territory in the South China Sea and courting Chinese aid and investment.
For its part, Beijing has eased pressure on Filipino fishermen and is working with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on a code of conduct to avoid friction while operating in the area where an estimated $5 trillion in international trade passes every year.
Boao forum
Cayetano said President Duterte would visit China next month to attend the Boao regional economic forum on the southern island province of Hainan and meet Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“Our relationship is in a golden period, and with very positive momentum, we are now ready to face more challenges together,” Cayetano said.
He expressed confidence that China and the Philippines would find “a suitable legal framework” for their different viewpoints on the South China Sea.
Cayetano said last month that Manila would consult legal experts to make sure any accord would not infringe on Philippine sovereign rights.
Along with rich but diminishing fishing stocks, the South China Sea is believed to hold deposits of oil, gas and other resources.