Spratlys, other contested areas have limited oil resources

MANILA, Philippines - Contested areas in the West Philippine Sea, including the disputed Reed Bank in Spratly Islands, likely have few conventional oil and gas resources, the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a report earlier this month.

The Spratly Islands and Paracel Islands are two of the most contested areas. However, unlike other parts of the West Philippine Sea, these areas have not been assessed to hold large resources of oil and natural gas.

In total, the EIA said that the West Philippine Sea has about 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas rated as proved or probable reserves.

In addition to this, it said the US Geological Survey estimated in 2012 that about 12 billion barrels of oil and 160 trillion cubic feet of natural gas might exist as undiscovered resources in the West Philippine Sea, excluding the Gulf of Thailand and other adjacent areas.

However, the EIA said these additional resources are not of commercial volume.

“About one fifth of these resources may be found in contested areas, particularly in the Reed Bank at the northeast end of the Spratly Islands, which is claimed by China, Taiwan and Vietnam. These additional resources are not considered commercial reserves at this time; extracting them may not be economically feasible,” the EIA said in its April 3 report.

Parts of the Reed Bank are also being claimed by the Philippines.