Friday, March 23, 2018

China Successfully Pressures Vietnam To Cancel A Major Oil Project In The South China Sea

BBC: South China Sea: Vietnam 'scraps new oil project'

Vietnam has cancelled a major oil project in the South China Sea for the second time in a year, in the wake of Chinese pressure, the BBC has learned.

State-owned PetroVietnam ordered Spanish energy firm Repsol to suspend a project off the south-east coast, a well-placed industry source said.

It means Repsol and partners could lose up to $200m of investment already made.

The news is unexpected as final preparations for commercial drilling were under way.

China is likely to regard this move as a significant victory. The Vietnamese decision seems to demonstrate that the recent show of force in the South China Sea by the United States has not changed Vietnam's strategic calculations.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: China must have really put the squeeze on Vietnam to cancel this project.

More News On China Successfully Pressuring Vietnam To Cancel A Major Oil Project In The South China Sea

Vietnam halts South China Sea oil drilling project under pressure from Beijing -- Reuters
Vietnam Halts Oil Project In South China Sea -- OilPrice.com
The craziness of China's island claims -- Washington Examiner
Why March 2018 Was an Active Month in Vietnam's Balancing Against China in the South China Sea -- The Diplomat

3 comments:

jac said...

Why Vietnam is not taking an American company? The Chinese threat would be a little bit different.

Anonymous said...

Jac, Vietnam is a Chinese neighbour. Believe me when I tell you there's zero love for Chinese in Vietnam. Having said that, there's also no appetite in confronting China, and a lot of money going around to look away. It's not the first time the Chinese have slapped the Vietnamese around. Not even the first time because of an oil platform (happened so before last year). The Vietnamese won't forget. The Chinese will do well in respecting Vietnamese. It's a lesson Americans learnt decades ago.

Anonymous said...

China really knows how to make friends HAHA

** 2-3 years ago most pundits were still "China is rising peacefully and they are masters at international chess play"

** fast forward to today:
1. China gets bitchslapped on trade theft and international property theft
2. China has made more enemies that Nazi-Germany haha.. all its neighbours hate it
3. China is losing even Taiwan if they don't watch out what happens with North Korea

What has China got left for pundits to say "they play the long game, they sooo smart" haha

failure after failure after making enemies for life. They have no where to go but retreat home and that's exactly what will happen. their economy will start to shrink. Thankfully Xi will be able to keep control, thanks to mass surveillance state who enjoys a torture now and then...good luck to all who don't make it out of China in the next couple of years. If you stay and don't have family there you're mad