Chinese scientists drill in contested South China Sea amid rising tensions

They retrieved sediment core from the seabed in an unknown location on Wednesday, according to state media
Observers say deep water oil and gas exploration technology has made significant progress and activities will have the region on alert

South China Sea

Rachel Zhangin Shanghai

Published: 7:39pm, 9 Apr 2021

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Chinese scientists have carried out deep-sea drilling in the disputed South China Sea to obtain sediment core, according to state media, a move that is expected to fuel tensions in the region.

They retrieved the sediment core – measuring 231 metres (758 feet) – using a Chinese-made drilling system, the “Sea Bull II”, on Wednesday. It was taken from a depth of 2,060 metres (6,758 feet) in an unknown location of the waterway, state news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday.

The report said the drilling system could be used to explore natural gas hydrate resources in the seabed. Natural gas hydrates – or “combustible ice” – are a frozen fossil fuel found in the seabed and beneath permafrost that is made up of water and gas, usually methane.

Energy-guzzling China has been stepping up oil exploration activities for years in a bid to reduce its dependence on imports from foreign countries.

Sediment core was obtained from a depth of 2,060 metres using the “Sea Bull II” drilling system. Photo: Xinhua

Zhang Yanqiang, president of the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea Research Institute at Dalian Maritime University, said the latest activities indicated that the Chinese deep water oil and gas exploration technology had made significant progress.

“China’s capabilities in this field have now surpassed most other countries’ and it can now independently explore oil and gas resources in the South China Sea without having to work with foreign parties,” Zhang said.

“But given that China has sovereignty disputes with several other claimants over vast areas of the South China Sea – which contains rich reserves of energy resources including natural gas and oil – these capabilities will have other countries in the region on alert, and nations like Japan and the US are also likely to make a fuss about this,” he said.

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Beijing claims most of the resource-rich South China Sea, but the claims are contested by neighbours including the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia. A deepening dispute with Manila over Chinese vessels massed at Whitsun Reef, in the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone, has escalated in recent days. The US Navy has also stepped up its presence in the disputed waters this week.

According to official news agency Xinhua, the drilling system could be used to explore natural gas hydrate resources. Photo: Xinhua

Lin Yongxin, director of the National Institute for South China Sea Studies’ Maritime Silk Road Research Institute, said although the location of the drilling on Wednesday was not disclosed “there are several places where depths are more than 2,000 metres in the South China Sea, including in the northwest and southern parts”.

But he said it was done to test the equipment and for research purposes rather than oil exploration.

While there is no clear authoritative estimate of the energy reserves in the South China Sea, the US Energy Information Administration has put them at about 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, most of it located along the margins and not under disputed islands.

Chinese energy exploration in the waterway prompted anti-China protests in Vietnam in 2014, after state-run China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC) deployed a drilling rig near the contested Paracel Islands. The oil rig was later moved away. The US added CNOOC to an economic blacklist in January, saying it had helped China intimidate neighbours in the South China Sea.