CHINA: China defends its decision to send four more oil rigs to the disputed South China Sea, saying it is doing so within Chinese waters

Record ID: 344556

  • Title: CHINA: China defends its decision to send four more oil rigs to the disputed South China Sea, saying it is doing so within Chinese waters
  • Date: 20th June 2014
  • Summary: BEIJING, CHINA (JUNE 20, 2014) (REUTERS) FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESWOMAN, HUA CHUNYING, WALKING TO PODIUM JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESWOMAN, HUA CHUNYING, SAYING: "I would like to ask you to look at the map patiently and you will see very clearly that the coordinators are completely in the waters close to China's Hainan and Guangdong provinces. So I think for these normal activities there is no need to read more into this or to have an over-active imagination." NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS EXTERIOR OF FOREIGN MINISTRY CHINESE NATIONAL FLAG
  • Embargoed: 5th July 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAF29U7EZ3RX4QHW393HX9AGGH2
  • Story Text: China said on Friday (June 20) that not too much should be read into its decision to send four more oil rigs to the South China Sea, less than two months after it positioned a giant drilling platform in waters claimed by Vietnam.
    Coordinates posted on the website of China's Maritime Safety Administration showed the Nanhai number 2 and 5 rigs would be deployed roughly between southern China and the Pratas islands, which are occupied by Taiwan. The Nanhai 4 rig would be towed close to the Chinese coast.
    The agency, which did not say who owns the rigs, said all three would be in place by Aug. 12.
    Earlier this week, it gave coordinates for a fourth rig, the Nanhai 9, which would be positioned just outside Vietnam's exclusive economic zone by Friday.
    The announcement comes at a time when many countries in Asia, particularly Vietnam and the Philippines, are nervous at China's increasing assertiveness in the South China Sea, where sovereignty over countless islands and reefs is in dispute.
    Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said other countries should not read too much into it, as China was deploying the rigs within its waters.

    "I would like to ask you to look at the map patiently and you will see very clearly that the coordinators are completely in the waters close to China's Hainan and Guangdong provinces. So I think for these normal activities there is no need to read more into this or to have an over-active imagination," Hua told a regular news conference in Beijing.
    China's state oil behemoth CNOOC Ltd has said it had four new projects scheduled to come on stream in the western and eastern South China Sea in the second half of 2014.
    It was unclear if the four rigs were part of those projects. A CNOOC spokesman declined to comment, but the company has long said that in a bid to boost production it wanted to explore in deeper waters off China.
    CNOOC has said it would increase by up to a third its annual capital spending for 2014 to almost $20 billion.
    Anti-Chinese violence flared in Vietnam last month after a $1 billion deepwater rig owned by CNOOC Group, the parent of the listed unit, was parked 240 km (150 miles) off the coast of Vietnam.
    Hanoi says the rig is in its 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone and on its continental shelf. China has said the rig was operating completely within its waters.
    China claims about 90 percent of the potentially energy-rich South China Sea. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan also have claims to parts of the waters.
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