China’s plan to shift its first deep-water drilling rig into the disputed South China Sea has been branded illegal.
China’s state-run CNOOC oil company owns the $1billion oil rig dubbed Haiyang Shiyou 981. The rig has been drilling south of Hong Kong before the announcement to relocate to the international hotspot, approximately 120 miles of Vietnam’s coast.
Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry spokesman heralded the move ‘illegal and worthless’. He said the rig’s coordinates were within Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone and continental shelf.
Spokesman Le Hai Binh said: “All activities of foreign countries in Vietnam’s waters without Vietnam’s permission are illegal and worthless, Vietnam resolutely opposed.”
His comments were reinforced by Vietnam’s state oil and gas group PetroVietnam, which sent a letter CNOOC. It “insisted CNOOC stop immediately the illegal activities and pull out Haiyang Shiyou 981 of Vietnam’s waters”.
The Maritime Safety Administration of China (MSAC) previously published an announcement on its website stating it prohibited all marine vessels within a one mile radius of the Haiyang Shiyou 981’s South China Sea drilling work.