China Claims: Illegal Foreign Oil Platforms Discovered in South China Sea

China Claims: Illegal Foreign Oil Platforms Discovered in South China Sea

China’s South China Seas patrols discover over 30 foreign oil platforms

March 20th, China’s State Oceanic Administration South China Seas sub-bureau issued information saying that the ships deployed by the China Maritime Surveillance Force South China Seas Fleet discovered over 30 illegal foreign oil and gas platforms. During the patrol, the ships broadcasted towards the foreign oil platforms requesting that the other party report the oil platform’s information and oil and gas extraction situation.

From original source (it's in Chinese): NetEase


A second survey team was dispatched to the East China Sea and also claimed to discover 'illegal' foreign-owned (Japanese in this case) oil platforms;

Six surveillance ships inspected oil fields in the East China Sea and the Chunxiao and Pinghu gas fields close to the Diaoyu islands on March 16, Xinhua said. The Diaoyu islands, known as Senkaku in Japanese, are the subject of a boundary dispute between Japan and China.

Additional sources (in English)

Ecns.cn:
30 illegal exploration platforms found in S China Sea

Guangzhou (CNS) -- A China Marine Surveillance (CMS) patrol team recently discovered more than 30 foreign oil and gas exploration platforms illegally operating in the South China Sea. An official announcement of the discovery was made on Tuesday following the team's third mission which concluded just days ago.

According to South China Sea branch of the State Oceanic Administration (SOA), during the search of Chinese-administered waters, the CMS team spoke to people on the foreign platforms via loudspeaker, requiring them to report basic information about their rigs.

CNMilitary.info:
Chinese maritime surveillance the corps cruise in the South China Sea found that more than 30 foreign oil and gas platforms


According to the Chinese Maritime Surveillance Corps, they've completed a survey of their (or what they claim to be their) territorial waters in the South China Sea and discovered 30 'illegal' foreign-owned oil rigs.

Globaltimes.cn talks a bit further about the role of this agency and how China has not historically flexed it's military muscle when it comes to sea power, or hasn't really taken ownership of these waters to any degree. See: "China yet to be a sea power" (Globaltimes.cn).

In the meantime, a series of aggressive moves since the beginning of this year by China's neighbors having maritime territorial disputes with China underscore the country's concerns and need to respond to the actions.

While Chinese media have applauded the latest efforts of China's Marine Surveillance authorities to dispatch two patrol teams simultaneously to the East China Sea and the South China Sea, a way to declare China's sovereignty over them, the question is whether there is a systematic national ocean strategy to make China more assertive in terms of sea power.

Some of the disputed oil platforms were recently put out for bid by the Philippine DOE, working with Conoco.

The Philippines, Japan, and Viet Nam have all been making a series of claims into the South China Sea which the Chinese have been intently disputing. The United States appears to be supporting some of these claims or at least making military contingency plans for a showdown with China over, as we saw not too long ago when the US started a military naval buildup in Australia.

US Senators Support Philippines in S. China Sea Dispute
Beijing Warns U.S. About South China Sea Disputes

China is rapidly building up it's naval power and military might. This dispute is certainly why.

i know its not a laugthing matter but 30 dilling platforms did not appear overnight

So what's going to come of this? And were all 30+ oil rigs Japanese?
Either way that's not good. They hate each other with a passion, will definitely be watching this closely.

I wonder just how fast China could build a modern navy. I don't know enough to make a good guess. If they can build a skyscraper in 15 days, I would expect some impressive time on their naval vessels though.

I would imagine that part of the reason they have yet to build up their navy would be that it would probably piss off America, her current best customer. They can get more out of us the peaceful way, at least in the current paradigm. That paradigm is shifting however, and it is starting to look pretty grimdark up in here.

I would expect that for defensive purposes massive barrages of very scary anti ship and anti air missiles would do perfectly fine, but it is clear that naval force projection would have been highly desirable in this scenario

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


I think this time China jumped out is better than before "Not dare to say anything". The main reason China made this issue big probably cause a) we are trying to get "South China Sea", b) we THINK it's OUR LAND, but we don't get much petroleum exploitation around that area. (allow me to correct, we do have petroleum exploitation over there, not much tho. It's a media mistake) So far, most of Chinese petroleum exploitation is around shallow pelagic area(not sure if it's correct in english). Meanwhile oil price is pretty expensive in China now. And small countries selling rights of petroleum exploitation to other western countries, of cause who we don't really like, USA....China is Not happy! Since "other countries are getting oil from South China Sea" this topic is not new at all in China, but the reason they speak it out now is definitely related to the South China Sea issue. This might be a warning, to whom....i can't tell yet.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration Web site got a report of the U.S. Geological Survey said, the total oil resources in the South China Sea may reach 280 million barrels. The proven reserves at least got 75 billion barrels.Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and other countries in the South China Sea, are now all sharing this BIG CAKE. Oil production is on about more than 50 million tons a year, many countries keep joining in and bidding for exploration and development.
Vietnam got 185 blocks/area, and signed contract with over 50 foreign oil companies on oil exploration and development over China's Xisha, Nansha Islands; Malaysia has got several deep-sea oil and gas blocks already , 13 blocks of oil and gas exploration and exploitation related to South China Sea; Brunei cooperated Shell got over 240 platform on sea. According to the Brunei official documents, the economic zone of Brunei is including China's Nantong reefs and 3,000 square kilometers ocean around NANSHA. the Philippines is tendering on 15 oil and gas blocks, three are in Nansha Island area.



If China really wants to get South China Sea, still got looooong way to go.






muwahahah.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


Oh well hope you guys can understand my broken english, i'm seriously trying my best.

This is Chinas first direct action against the drilling, they will step this up incrementally now.......
They have laid the basis of their claim and will proceed to resolve the disputes with the neighbours over bottom rights and resources.....
Perhaps more will come of it, but i doubt it..It will just be one of the things goverments continue to bluster over to divert attention from their incompatance.

reply to post by Cordyceps


Thanks for the valuable insight, and don't worry about your broken English, it was perfectly understandable.

Can I assume you are Chinese? If so, what is your opinion on the S. China Sea dispute? The People's Republic of China is claiming a vast area that has been under the control of Malaysia, Viet Nam, Philippines, and even Taiwan's control for some time, they've developed a large number of platforms in the sea.

I can see the Chinese government making the claim for the Paracel Islands, that is very close to their mainland. But what is the basis for their claim of the Spratly Islands, which is closer to Malaysia and the Philippines than to China?

An image of their claims is here:
upload.wikimedia.org...

Per intenational agreement they own 12 miles beyond their coast. They are free to plant their own plattforms.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


Hey sorry for late reply. I don't check site every day. And yes, i'm 100 percent Chinese tho i'm living overseas atm.
The history about Spratly Islands from CHINA SIDE, is actually pretty long…
So I'd make it very easy:
China Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), Zheng He's Voyages went pass Spratly Islands and Paracel islands. en.wikipedia.org...
After the Anti-Japan war, the most important basis of China's sovereignty in the South sea was the traditional territory line "The Kudan Line". After the victory, around 1946, Chinese gov. took over the Spratly islands. In 1946, KMT realized the map of South China sea is too confusing so they started the delimitation of boundary.
1947, KMT completed the demarcation of the South china Sea line, it began from south side latitude 4(James Shoal), Huangyan Island was also included in Kau line. (Speaking of the Huangyan island, China claimed it's actually located in 117 ° 48, not 118. so ….technically, it doesn't belong to Philippine…Philippine law now said more than 200 nautical miles from the coast are belonging to them, it's against "the united nation convention on the law of the sea"
Quarter of century after the 1947 demarcation, the neighbor countries haven't been jump out and against that demarcation. Till the last century late in 1960s-early 1970s…they found offshore oil and gas resources…everyone wants that area….

So this's basically why China insists it belongs to China.

The basic history i learned from our side is like this. I think the whole thing came up because of the oil and gas, was a bit like bunch of kids contest a toy. As a Chinese, honestly, i do hope we can get both South China sea and East sea(the other part we are fighting for now.) Cause if we get them (here, i wouldn't say get them back), we'd be 'winner'. At least, it helps our huge population. I think foreign countries are a little bit misunderstanding China, thanks to America for all those china-threat theory and conspiracy theory. I honestly think even if China got lots of power, still the gov won't start war with someone else. Chinese gov. is not as greedy as U.S gov. U.S or other countries have no single idea about how HARD to take care of our own population. :/ Not even mention all those foreigners (like....A LOT) coming to our countries, we have to feed them resources too. China is a poor kid lol Tho i'm not saying U.S is a monster...it's just...."if you ain't in my position you can't feel what i feel", if you know what i mean. Plus westen and eastern got culture difference.
And then those Phillipine, malaysia...those small countries just want to protect themselves, reasonable, understandable. As U.S basically is EVERYWHERE, and want to get involved with EVERYTHING (isn't that true? lol like an global ocean policeman), so it's basically not really a "fight" between China and those small countries, but a "fight" under the table between U.S and China.

I think other countries do need to worry about China is because, it might be even more powerful than I thought (As a chinese). See, we used to say if you wanna destroy China, the economic sanctions and war don't work at all. We would survive anyway. But if you trying to separate our territory...The reason why China didn't make much noise on this issue was because we were not ready, back that time if there's a war ... if we lost we'd lose some important lands. But now, this time China made it as a big issue actually surprised lots of people.....I couldn't help to think about if that means China is seriously ready or just really was pissed off.

Mwahahah.

Originally posted by ignorant_ape
i know its not a laugthing matter but 30 dilling platforms did not appear overnight

Wether they appeared over night or not, is irrelevant ... here you have foreign "American" companies that are drilling for oil, and are not bound to any legality, in such a manner that they pose a serious maritime and environmental threat to China.

This is a legitimate reason, for China to go to war.

Originally posted by Cassius666
Per intenational agreement they own 12 miles beyond their coast. They are free to plant their own plattforms.

Wrong, they own 12 miles beyond the "ridge" their landmass lies on. Which is why Iceland could move their lines 50 miles, and then out to 200 miles. Becase the land ridge it lies on, is huge.

And if you "care" to take a look at Google-Earth, you will see that the "entire" southern china sea, is on the Chinese land continent ... which means, it belongs to China.

Currently, China is expelling all foreigners out of China ... they are preparing to nuke you. Counting half the human race, I think you are about as dead as a door nail. And knowing both Fukushima and Chernobyl, we know that no matter how many nukes you fire back ... they'll survive, and you wont.

Originally posted by AlwaysWary
They hate each other with a passion

Please refrain from using such remarks, since it's the governments and leaders that make people hate each other,and not the people themselves.Be more specific next time.Deny ignorance.