Oil and gas real reason behind territorial dispute between China and Japan: Report

Πηγή: News Track India
Oct 30 2012

Washington, Oct. 30 (ANI): As China and Japan are involved in a spar to gain control of a tiny group of islands in the sea between them, the deeper issue is whether which of Asia's two biggest economies will first gain control of the valuable oil and natural gas located there.

Since mid-September, a number of Chinese ships have sailed close to the eight uninhabited islands in the East China Sea in order to assert its claim there.

Japan now controls the islands, known as the Senkaku in Tokyo and the Diaoyu in Beijing. It had announced in September that it was buying the islands, which sparked mass street protests in China and a diplomatic crossfire so intense that US officials have urged calm.

"If they could get it, oil and gas would be hugely important," Liu Chia-jen, petrochemicals analyst with KGI Securities in Taipei said.

"But whoever makes that move will run into trouble," he says, adding that because of those tensions, the potentially enormous oil and gas fields in the region are likely to stay untapped for a while," Liu Chia-jen added.

According to the Christian Science Monitor, China is the second largest net importer of oil after the United States. Heavily-industrialized Japan is the third, it said.

Years of rapid growth have led to China's fuel consumption soaring, and the country has been quicker than Japan in plumbing the East China Sea.

According to the report, Japan, which has relied heavily on nuclear power, has also seen its oil usage jump since its nuclear power plants went idle after the Fukushima nuclear power plant crisis last year.

Just how much oil is at stake in the East China Sea is uncertain.

CNOOC Ltd., a Chinese offshore driller, estimated that in the East China Sea proven oil reserves were at about 18 million barrels and gas reserves at 300 billion cubic feet last year.

The US Energy Information Administration, meanwhile, estimates that the East China Sea has between 60 and 100 million barrels of oil in "proven and probable reserves" and 1 trillion to 2 trillion cubic feet in natural gas reserves, the report added.

Japan Protests China's East China Sea Gas Drilling

Πηγή: Natural Gas Asia

By AP

Feb 1 2012

Japan has accused China of unilaterally exploring gas deposits in the East China Sea, in violation of an agreement to jointly develop disputed areas.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters Wednesday that Japan protested to China after a flare was seen Tuesday at a Chinese structure at an undersea gas deposit. Japan has made similar complaints several times in the past.

"We have detected a flare, a sign that it is highly likely that there is a gas development going on," Fujimura said. "Any unilateral exploration is unacceptable."

The deposit, known as Kashi in Japan and Tianwaitian in China, sits near a median line of the two countries' overlapping exclusive economic zones.

Japan and China agreed in 2008 to suspend unilateral digging in that field while continuing talks, but talks have stalled since 2010, following a diplomatic spat stemming from a maritime collision near disputed southern islands claimed by both countries, as well as Taiwan.

Fujimura said China's activity around the disputed field violates the agreement.

A Foreign Ministry official in charge of China affairs said later Wednesday that Beijing justified its activity, repeating its claim that China has sovereignty over the area.

Days earlier, Beijing accused Tokyo of naming a group of uninhabited southern islands in nearby waters that both countries claim.

Four of the islands are in the disputed Senkaku, or Diaoyu, chain in the East China Sea. The islands, also claimed by China and Taiwan, have been a flashpoint in diplomatic relations.

Beijing said Tokyo's naming attempt is "illegal and invalid," the ministry official said on condition of anonymity because of sensitivity of the issue. Tokyo responded by saying the islands are an integral part of Japan.

Japan's Cabinet Office has said it will use the names for new maps, adding that the islets are within Japan's established exclusive economic zone and will not change any maritime boundaries.

The islands are surrounded by rich fishing grounds and are regularly occupied by nationalists from both sides.

Japan and China have often quarreled over the islands, the contested gas fields and lingering animosity over Japan's occupation of China in much of the first half of the 1900s.