The Philippines says oil blocks it plans to offer to international exploration companies later this month in the South China Sea are “well within” its territory, after tensions escalated over drilling rights in the area.
Two of the 15 blocks the nation plans to offer lie within areas also claimed by China, according to a map it presented to the United Nations in 2009. China has repeatedly said it will oppose any attempt to drill for oil in waters where it claims jurisdiction. The Philippines and Vietnam have both protested Chinese harassment of oil survey vessels in the past two months.
Disputes over the South China Sea have drawn in the U.S., which has a defense treaty with the Philippines and says that keeping the world’s busiest shipping lane open is of national strategic importance. Recent signs that China’s Southeast Asian neighbors are pushing ahead with attempts to unlock oil and gas reserves beneath the ocean floor have raised the risk of military standoffs in the region.
“The stakes are slowly rising,” Carlyle A. Thayer, a professor of politics at the Australian Defense Force Academy in Canberra, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “What is China going to do by way of response? That’s what’s worrying.”
The Philippines plans to offer the contracts by the end of the month, Energy Undersecretary Jose Layug told reporters yesterday.
To view the full article by Cecilia Yap and Daniel Ten Kate published on Bloomberg, click here.
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