Vietnam accused a Chinese energy company of operating in its
waters illegally, potentially ratcheting up tensions further
between the two countries.
On Saturday, China's Maritime Safety Administration disclosed
the location of China National Offshore Oil Corp.'s HD-981 oil rig.
The area is in part of the South China Sea that Vietnam claims as
its "exclusive economic zone," said Vietnamese Foreign Ministry
spokesman Le Hai Binh.
"All activities by a foreign entity in Vietnamese waters without
Vietnam's consent are illegal and invalid, and Vietnam strongly
protests [such activities]," Mr. Binh said in a statement posted on
the government's website late Sunday. The area the Cnooc rig is
operating in is "only 120 nautical miles from Vietnam's shore," the
statement added.
At a daily press briefing on Monday, China Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the rig was in Chinese waters. "As we
understand it, the Chinese Maritime Safety Administration issued a
shipping notice on May 3 regarding the work of China's 981
platform. The relevant work is located completely within the area
belonging to China's Xisha Islands," Ms. Hua said, referring to the
islands by their Chinese name.
Cnooc didn't immediately reply to a request to comment on the
situation.
State-owned Vietnam Oil & Gas Group, or PetroVietnam,
Vietnam's biggest energy company, on Sunday sent a letter to Cnooc
executives to protest the location of the oil rig, according to the
government statement.
Vietnam and several other countries in the Asian-Pacific region
have been embroiled in long-standing territorial disputes with
China over parts of the South China Sea.
Last month, Vietnam officially launched a fisheries surveillance
force that it said will monitor local fishermen and work to protect
the country's territorial waters. This followed China's move to
enact a new regulation in January requiring foreign fishermen to
obtain Beijing's consent before operating in parts of the South
China Sea that it claims, including the waters near the Paracel
islands.
In 2012, the Vietnamese government objected to Cnooc's decision
to invite bids for a new batch of oil exploration blocks, some of
which were within the 200-mile limit that Vietnam claims as its
exclusive economic zone. While Cnooc regularly offers blocks for
foreign investment in the sea, the move marked its most significant
offer in disputed waters. "Large-scale deep-water rigs are our
mobile national territory and a strategic weapon," Cnooc Chairman
Wang Yilin said at the time.
PetroVietnam urged China to cancel bidding for the areas it
identified as being in Vietnamese waters, calling on foreign firms
not to participate and noting that Oil & Natural Gas Corp.,
Gazprom OAO and Exxon Mobil Corp. had been operating under licenses
issued by Vietnam in some of those areas for many years.
Josh Chin in Beijing contributed to this article.
Write to Vu Trong Khanh at trong-khanh.vu@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires