A joint-venture plan involving flagship Taiwan and mainland Chinese petroleum corporations exploring for oil in the Taiwan Strait has recently been revived after a five-year hiatus.
A draft agreement on the plan was jointly inked in 1996 by Overseas Petroleum Investment Co, an offshoot of Taiwan's state-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油), and the Beijing-based China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC, 中國海洋石油), featuring joint oil exploration in waters located southeast of the mouth of China's Zhujiang (Pearl River), Chinese Petroleum sources said yesterday.
Encompassing 15,400 square kilometers, the targeted area straddles the imaginary demarcation line in the Taiwan Strait that has been tacitly accepted by both Taipei and Beijing for decades.
The joint project was called to a halt later in 1996 after former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) called for the "no haste, be patient" policy to curb Taiwan's fast-growing economic and business expansion into China.
If everything goes smoothly, a formal pact on the deal is expected to be formally signed by the end of this year, paving the way for the two companies to launch formal exploratory drilling, probably next year, Chinese Petroleum officials said.
The project is expected to usher in a new era of cooperation between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait in exploring for and tapping oil reserves.
Under the initial contract, the two companies will each contribute US$500,000 for oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) exploration in the targeted area.
Experts from both sides are optimistic about the prospects for the project, saying that the targeted area is rich in oil and LNG resources. The seven fields found near the mouth of the Pearl River are expected to produce about 10 million tonnes of petroleum per year, they added.
Company officials had met several times to discuss the project before the adoption of the "no haste, be patient" policy.
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