Taiwan considering new oil exploration deal with China

AP ^ | 7-31-02 | AP

[AIG]

TAIPEI, Taiwan - Taiwan's state-owned Chinese Petroleum Corp. is mulling a new deal to jointly explore oil and gas with the mainland's China National Offshore Oil Corp., a company official said Wednesday.

The company is now studying geological data about the Nanri Dao Basin — a group of islands off the coast of China's southeastern Fujian Province — and is considering jointly exploring the area with the Chinese firm, said the CPC official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

CPC is only "in the preliminary stage" of studying data about the Nanri Dao Basin, and many details have yet to be mapped out, the official said.

If there are signs of oil and gas reserves, CPC may follow a previous model that the two oil companies had used to explore for oil and gas in the Tainan Basin, he said.

Earlier this year, CPC and CNOOC set up a 50-50 joint venture to look for oil and gas in the Tainan Basin, in the southern part of the Taiwan Strait.

The joint venture is now getting ready to drill exploration wells, the CPC official said.

Joint oil exploration in the Taiwan Strait — the 160-kilometer (100-mile) body of water that divides Taiwan and China — is one of the rare cases where the political rivals have been able to put aside their differences and cooperate.

The two split amid civil war in 1949, but China regards Taiwan as part of its own territory.

[AIG]

Taiwan's state-owned Chinese Petroleum Corp.

Taiwan's government owns about 50% of Taiwan's economy, which is the same percentage as for the mainland these days as the mainland's private sector has ballooned.

[Libertarianize the GOP]

.

[Conagher]

But Taiwan is a great and good capitalist democracy and the PRC is an eeeevil communist state! How is this possible?

< /sarcasm>

[KneelBeforeZod]

I know this is a fake article, because the china-taiwan nannies on FR insist that there is no such thing as Taiwanese businesses in China.

[Conagher]

Interesting. I have it on very good authority that many Taiwanese businesses exist in China.

I guess even here truth is occasionally unwelcome.

[KneelBeforeZod]

theres quite a few times truth is unwelcome....then again my uncle is a figment of my imagination, because he has 2 businesses and a house in china. even though he was born and lives in Taiwan...

[Conagher]

Blasphemer! China is full of short, buck-toothed people with queues pulling sedan chairs and eating kung pao triple delight and you know it! The all-knowing folks here tell us so.

< /sarcasm >

Often I find myself reading posts about a place called China that seems to be far different than the place I know. Oh well. Fighting ignorance is always a pitched battle.