East Asia quest for oil and gas

James Brooke NY Times ("DRAWING THE LINE ON ENERGY",
2005-03-29) reported that when Japan commissions a
survey of what is hidden below the contested waters of
the East China Sea, the PRC coast guard ships treat the
surveyors as spies, radioing warnings to leave and
shadowing the ship for days on end.

In days of sharply higher energy prices, long-dormant
border disputes have suddenly come alive for Japan, the
world's second-largest energy-consuming nation after the
US. In talks in Tokyo on Monday between Japan and the
PRC, the world's second- and third-largest oil
consumers, Japanese negotiators again demanded that the
PRC share its drilling data or drop the project, news
agencies reported. The PRC side rejected the demands
and repeated an earlier proposal for a joint venture.

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