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THE
trilateral hydrocarbon venture in the disputed areas of
the South China Sea should be “expedited and completed”
to pave the way for exploratory oil drilling among the
national oil companies of
China,
the Philippines and Vietnam.
Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. suggested
this to
Beijing
officials during his six-day official visit to
China.
Parties concerned should turn what he
called an “area of potential conflict into a zone of
peace and development” as the price of crude breached
$100 per barrel in the world market.
“With the price of crude hitting the
roof, we should have oil in our front yard and back
yard,” de Venecia told Chairman Wu Bangguo of the
National People’s Congress.
During his meeting with China’s No. 2
man, de Venecia said that once seismic data-gathering in
the
South China Sea’s
disputed islets is completed under the trilateral
venture, “the next step is to identify the most likely
drillable petroleum sites and to start exploratory
drilling.”
Earlier Wednesday, de Venecia opened
his China visit with a productive meeting with top
officials of the China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC)—one
of the largest state-owned oil and gas companies in
China—led by its chairman and CEO Fu Chengyu, and joined
by other senior officials, among them Chou Hsouwei and
Wu Beikang.
De
Venecia’s other major meeting is scheduled on Thursday
when he confers with Premier Wen Jiabao in Zhongnanhai,
and later with Minister Wang Jiarui of the International
Department of the International Liaison Department of
the Communist Party of China.
During
the meeting, de Venecia raised the possibility of having
a parallel organization for oil-producing countries that
are not members of the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (Opec), such as Russia and China.
This
parallel organization, he said, will not create conflict
or confrontation but will raise to Opec, for possible
discussion, the emerging issue of climate change and
energy alternatives such as biofuels.
De
Venecia said he agreed with the CNOOC president about
the need for a regular meeting among the presidents of
national oil companies, and this dialogue could form the
nucleus of a parallel organization to Opec.
He
recalled that
China,
the Philippines and Vietnam already reached a
“meaningful seismic agreement” enabling the national oil
corporations of the three countries to explore jointly
for hydrocarbon resources in the contested area.
The
agreement as envisioned by China’s leadership under
President Hu Jintao, President Arroyo and de Venecia set
aside the sovereignty issue in the three nations’
conflicting claims to the islets in the South China Sea.
“Our
economic cooperation has generated political
side-benefits,” de Venecia said. “It has enabled our
countries quietly to ease their residual problems.”
De
Venecia also said that he saw the need to “broaden and
deepen” the partnership on the South China Sea.
“In my
view, the time has also come for us to reach out to
Malaysia
and Brunei, the two other claimants to the disputed
areas of the
South China Sea,” de Venecia said. |
