China has sent four more oil rigs into the South China Sea in a sign that Beijing is stepping up its exploration for oil and gas in the tense region, less than two months after it positioned a platform in waters claimed by Vietnam.
The announcement comes when many countries in Asia are nervous at Beijing’s increasing assertiveness in the potentially energy-rich waters, where sovereignty over countless islands and reefs is in dispute.
Coordinates posted on the Web site of the Chinese Maritime Safety Administration showed the Nanhai No. 2 and No. 5 rigs had been deployed between China’s southern Guangdong Province and the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島), which are occupied by Taiwan. The Nanhai No. 4 rig was towed to waters close to the Chinese coast.
Earlier this week, the maritime body gave coordinates for a fourth rig, the Nanhai No. 9, which was to be positioned just outside Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone by yesterday.
Taiwanese Land Administration Department deputy director Wang Ching-hsiu (王靚琇) said Taipei claimed an exclusive economic zone around the Pratas Islands, but did not comment on the deployments.
China said the rigs were in waters close to Guangdong Province and Hainan Island.
“For these normal activities there is no need for over-reading or to make any particular links,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) told a daily briefing in Beijing. “Please don’t worry, there won’t be any problem.”
The rigs are listed as being operated by China Oilfield Services Ltd (COSL), the oil service arm of state-run China National Offshore Oil Company Group, according to COSL’s annual report last year.
Three are deepwater platforms, and one is a jackup rig used in shallow water.
The Global Times, a popular tabloid published by the Chinese Communist Party’s official People’s Daily, quoted Zhuang Guotu (莊國土), director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Xiamen University, as calling the rig deployment a “strategic move.”
“The increase in oil rigs will inevitably jab a sensitive nerve for Vietnam and the Philippines,” Zhuang said.
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