Japan and China, Asia's biggest energy users, are near an agreement to develop natural gas fields that lie between the two countries in the East China Sea, ending a four-year dispute over who owns the reserves.
“We have agreed to speed up the process of finalizing details of the negotiations,” Japanese Vice Trade Minister Takao Kitabata told reporters in Tokyo yesterday.
He couldn’t confirm a report that the countries may make an announcement as early as this week.
The world’s two biggest energy-consuming nations after the US have held talks since October 2004 over the ownership of gas fields in the East China Sea. China will allow Japan to invest in projects, including the Chunxiao field, as well the exploration of waters around the Duanqiao and Longjing fields, Kyodo News Service reported earlier, citing people it didn’t name.
“I have heard that the discussion is in its last stages,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura told reporters in Tokyo yesterday.
Japan and China agreed on Saturday to accelerate negotiations to resolve the dispute “as soon as possible” at a meeting between Japan’s Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura and his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi (楊潔篪), Kitabata said.
An area east of a median line between the two nations holds about 3.26 billion barrels of oil equivalent, more than one year of Japan’s consumption, an estimate by Japan’s trade ministry show. Japan used about 2.03 billion barrels of oil in 2006.
The two nations first agreed to joint development of areas in the East China Sea in April last year, when Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) visited Japan to meet then Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe. Gas fields in the disputed areas include Chunxiao, Duanqiao, Tianwaitian and Pinghu.
CNOOC Ltd, China’s biggest offshore oil producer, is developing the Chunxiao field, which extends beyond Japan’s claimed border into its exclusive economic zone. Inpex Holding Inc, which took over Teikoku Oil Co in 2006, owns rights to develop areas in the East China Sea.
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