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Japan's Demand for Chinese Gas Data Reasonable: Energy Chief

Posted on: Sunday, 18 September 2005, 18:00 CDT

Sep. 18--TOKYO -- Japan's demand that China hand over concrete data on its ongoing gas projects is not unreasonable because the area of resource development relates to a dispute over sovereignty, a senior Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry official said.

"When we discuss the boundary issue between the nations from the viewpoint of sovereignty, we need facts as a basis," Nobuyori Kodaira, the head of the METI's Natural Resources and Energy Agency, said in a recent interview with Kyodo News.

The energy chief brushed off the opposing view which compares handing over data to divulging a business secret or patent.

"We are not saying that we will use that data for commercial purposes," he said. "Offering information is a starting point for negotiations to settle the boundary dispute." Tokyo has repeatedly requested that Beijing present detailed data on its projects at the Chunxiao gas field and halt explorations immediately because the projects are conducted a few kilometers away from what Japan claims as the median line, a divide that separates the two countries' exclusive economic zones in the East China Sea.

The two countries have yet to settle the demarcation in the sea area, where their 200-nautical-mile EEZs overlap, as China says the median line is invalid and claims its EEZ extends further to the edge of the continental shelf.

Kodaira criticized Beijing for letting a Chinese consortium continue to explore resources at the site. "It is wrong for China to carry on with preparation for full-fledged production there, without presenting evidence to Japan that its projects do not negatively affect the Japanese side," he said.

Japan is concerned that China might siphon off resources that could be buried under the seabed in the Japanese side of the sea. A geophysical survey conducted by Tokyo has found that underground structures of the Chunxiao field extend into waters east of the median line.

The two countries held rounds of talks in Beijing in October last year and May this year to solve the dispute, but they failed to reach a breakthrough. Japan hopes to hold a third round of talks in Tokyo by the end of the month.

On July 14, Japan granted Teikoku Oil Co. permission to conduct experimental drilling in areas just east of the median line, in an apparent bid to counter China's plan to start full production at the Chunxiao field.

The head of China National Offshore Oil Corp. has said, however, that natural gas production in the field could begin by the end of September.

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Copyright (c) 2005, Kyodo News International, Tokyo

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Source: Kyodo News International, Tokyo

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