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East China Sea
Last Updated: September 17, 2014 (Notes)
full report
Overview
Unresolved territorial and maritime claims continue to hinder exploration and development in the East China Sea.
The East China Sea is a semi-closed sea bordered by the Yellow Sea to the north, the South China Sea and Taiwan to the south, Japan's Ryukyu and Kyushu islands to the east, and the Chinese mainland to the west. Studies identifying potentially abundant oil and natural gas deposits have made the sea a source of contention between Japan and China, the two largest energy consumers in Asia.
The East China Sea has a total area of approximately 482,000 square miles, consisting mostly of the continental shelf and the Okinawa Trough, a back-arc basin formed about 300 miles southeast of Shanghai between China and Japan. The disputed eight Senkaku islands are to the northeast of Taiwan. The largest of the islands is two miles long and less than a mile wide.
Though barren, the islands are important for strategic and political reasons, as sovereignty over land is the basis for claims to the surrounding sea and its resources under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. China and Japan both claim sovereignty over the islands, which are under Japanese administration, preventing wide-scale exploration and development of oil and natural gas in the East China Sea.
In 2013, China was the second-largest net oil importer in the world, behind the United States, and the world's largest global energy consumer. Natural gas imports have also risen in recent years, and China became a net natural gas importer for the first time in almost two decades in 2007. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts China's oil and natural gas consumption to continue growing in the coming years, putting pressure on the Chinese government to seek new supplies to meet domestic demand (see China country analysis brief).
Japan is the third-largest net importer of crude oil behind the United States and China, as well as the world's largest importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG), owing to the country having few domestic energy resources. Although EIA projects oil consumption in Japan to decline in the coming years, Japan will continue to rely heavily on imports to meet consumption needs (see Japan country analysis brief).
Both China and Japan are interested in extracting hydrocarbon resources from the East China Sea to help meet domestic demand. However, the unresolved territorial and maritime claims and limited evidence of hydrocarbon reserves make it unlikely that the region will become a major new source of hydrocarbon production.
Petroleum and other liquids
Hydrocarbon reserves in the East China Sea are difficult to estimate. The area is underexplored, and the territorial and maritime claims in the area of potentially rich oil and natural gas deposits precluded further development.
EIA estimates that the East China Sea has about 200 million barrels of oil (MMbbl) in proved and probable reserves. Chinese sources claim that undiscovered resources can be as high as 70 to 160 billion barrels of oil for the entire East China Sea, mostly in the Okinawa trough. Other sources have not corroborated these reports. Moreover, undiscovered resources do not take into account economic factors relevant to bring them into production, unlike proved and probable reserves.
China had a total of 24,400 million barrels of oil in proved reserves as of January 2014, according to the Oil & Gas Journal. Japan had a total of 44 million barrels of oil in proved reserves as of January 2014.
China began exploration activities in the East China Sea in the 1980s, discovering the Pinghu oil and gas field in 1983. Japan cofinanced two oil and gas pipelines running from the Pinghu field to Shanghai and the Ningbo onshore terminal on the Chinese mainland through the Asian Development Bank and the Japanese Bank of International Cooperation (JBIC).
More recently, both China and Japan have concentrated their oil and gas extraction efforts in the Okinawa trough. Most fields are operated as a joint venture (JV) between the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and the China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec) with support from foreign firms and other partners, such as the Shanghai government. CNOOC listed its East China Sea proved oil reserves at 20 million barrels in 2013, according to an annual report, while other partners have not publicly released their reserve figures.
Only the Pinghu field, operational since 1998, has produced oil in significant quantities to date. Pinghu's production peaked at around 8,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) to 10,000 bbl/d of oil and condensate in the late 1990s, and leveled off at about 400 bbl/d in recent years, according to data from IHS Energy. In the medium term, EIA does not forecast the East China Sea to become a significant supplier of oil.
Natural gas
The East China Sea basin, particularly the Okinawa Trough, is a potentially rich source of natural gas that could help meet Chinese and Japanese domestic demand.
EIA estimates that the East China Sea has between 1 and 2 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of proved and probable natural gas reserves. The region may also have significant upside potential in terms of natural gas. Chinese sources point to as much as 250 Tcf in undiscovered natural gas resources, mostly in the Okinawa trough, although these have not been independently verified.
China had a total of about 155,400 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of natural gas in proved reserves as of January 2014, according to the Oil & Gas Journal. Japan had a total of about 740 Bcf of natural gas proved reserves as of January 2014.
CNOOC listed its East China Sea proved gas reserves at 303 Bcf in 2013, according to an annual report. In 2012, an independent evaluation estimated probable reserves of 119 Bcf of natural gas in LS 36-1, a promising gas field north of Taiwan currently being developed as a joint venture between CNOOC and the UK firm Primeline Petroleum Corp.
The uncontested Pinghu field began producing in 1998 and reached a peak of approximately 60 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) in 2005, according to IHS Energy. The field's output has declined in recent years to around 40 MMcf/d.
In 1995, Chinese companies discovered a significant group of oil and gas fields in the Okinawa trough. Chunxiao/Shirabaka is the largest gas field in this group and is used on occasion to reference the entire group of fields. China began producing at the contested Tianwaitian/Kashi field in 2006, claiming it as part of its Exclusive Economic Zone. China has not released production data from the Chunxiao/Shirabaka field, citing concerns about the unresolved territorial and maritime claims.
The Chinese government prioritizes increasing natural gas consumption to alleviate high pollution from the country's heavy coal use. To that end, Chinese authorities intend to ramp up production and increase East China Sea gas to flow into the Yangtze River delta region, which includes Shanghai and Hangzhou, two large cities with growing natural gas demand.
Foreign ventures
Foreign energy companies have had mixed success in the East China Sea. In the 1990s, several foreign companies drilled a series of dry holes in uncontested waters. In 2003, Unocal and Royal Dutch Shell announced a joint venture with CNOOC and Sinopec to explore gas reserves in the Okinawa trough. However, Unocal and Shell withdrew from exploration projects in late 2004, citing doubts over the commercial viability of developing energy resources in the disputed area.
Primeline Petroleum Corp. discovered the LS 36-1 gas field near Taiwan in 1997, and signed an agreement to develop the field with CNOOC. Primeline's subsidiaries assume all exploration costs in the contract, and CNOOC is the field's operator. In 2014, the companies completed pipelines to link the field to an onshore processing terminal at Wenzhou, China to accept the future gas supplies. LS 36-1 has an estimated 173 Bcf of natural gas proved reserves and is set to begin natural gas production in the second half of 2014, according to IHS Energy.
Husky Oil China, a subsidiary of Canadian Husky Energy, holds an exploration block in East China Sea but has had more success with oil production in the South China Sea.
In August 2012, CNOOC opened three new offshore blocks for joint development with foreign companies in the East China Sea but has not awarded any contracts to date.
Unresolved territorial and maritime claims
China and Japan have two separate but interlinked claims: where to delimit the sea boundary between each country and sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands (China calls them Diaoyu, Taiwan calls them Diaoyutai).
Senkaku Islands
The Senkaku Islands consist of five uninhabited islets (small islands) and three barren rocks. Approximately 120 nautical miles southwest of Okinawa, Japan, the islands are situated on a continental shelf with the Okinawa trough to the south separating them from the nearby Ryukyu Islands.
Japan assumed control of Taiwan and the Senkaku Islands in 1895. For several decades after 1945, the United States administered the islands as part of the post-war occupation of Okinawa. The islands generated little attention during this time, although U.S. oil companies conducted minimal exploration in the area. In 1969, a report by the United Nations Committee for Coordination of Joint Prospecting for Mineral Resources in Asian Offshore Areas (CCOP) indicated possible large hydrocarbon deposits in the waters around the Senkaku islands, reigniting interest in the area. When the United States and Japan signed the Okinawa Reversion Treaty returning the Senkaku islands, Okinawa and other islands to Japanese administration, both the PRC and Taiwan protested the conclusion of the treaty.
The Japanese government began to lease the islands from their private Japanese owners in 2002, sparking protest from China. The Japanese government officially announced a deal to purchase the islands in September 2012, prompting a wave of protests throughout China.
Under Article 121 (3) of the Law of the Sea Convention, "Rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own shall have no exclusive economic zone or continental shelf". Japan has claimed that the disputed islands are not "rocks" in this sense and so generate an EEZ and continental shelf. China has not taken an official position on the status of the Senkakus in this regard.
Disputed maritime boundary in the East China Sea
China and Japan apply different approaches to the sea boundary in the East China Sea. Japan defines its boundary as the limit of its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) extending westward from its southern Kyushyu Island and Ryukyu Islands. China defines its boundary based on the natural extension of its continental shelf. The overlapping claims amount to nearly 81,000 square miles, an area slightly smaller than the state of Kansas. Japan has proposed a median line (a line drawn equidistant between both countries' uncontested EEZs) as a means to resolve the issue, but China rejected that proposal.
Mediation efforts
China and Japan began holding bilateral talks about the East China Sea issues in October 2004, although Taiwan did not participate. Japan has repeatedly requested seismic data from China on Okinawa trough fields and has asked China to stop production until both sides reach an agreement. China has consistently rejected this request, insisting that the trough and its associated fields are within its jurisdiction.
The two sides have considered joint development of the resources as a means of moving forward with energy exploration but have not yet agreed on what area such development would cover.
In 2008, China and Japan agreed to explore four gas fields in the East China Sea and halt development in other contested parts of the regions. Both sides agreed to conduct joint surveys, with equal investment in an area north of the Chunxiao/Shirakaba gas field and south of the Longjing/Asunaro gas field. However, China began to develop the Tianwaitian/Kashi gas field unilaterally, eliciting a protest from Japan in January 2009. To date, no joint development has actually occurred.
Other regional actors
The PRC and Taiwan have strengthened their energy relationship in the East China Sea through a joint venture between Taiwan's CPC and China's CNOOC. In September 2009, the JV drilled a second well in what was previously a contested area between China and Taiwan. Both sides have been conducting exploration and production activities in the Taiwan Strait, although no major fields have been discovered in the Tainan Basin.
South Korea reached an agreement with Japan on a partial continental shelf boundary south of the disputed Liancourt Rocks and a Joint Development Zone in the East China Sea, but has not reached any such similar agreement with China. The United States has not taken an official position on the issue of sovereignty over the Senkaku islands or on the maritime boundary between Japan and China in the East China Sea, and has urged both sides to reach a peaceful settlement.
Notes
- Data presented in the text are the most recent available as of September 17, 2014
- Data are EIA estimates unless otherwise noted.
Sources
Asia Times
Brookings Institution
Chemical News and Intelligence
Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation
IHS Energy
Oil & Gas Journal
Platts Oilgram News
U.S. Department of State
U.S. Energy Information Administration
U.S. Geological Survey
United Nations
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Xinhua Financial News
Project Feedback
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12/01/2016 - Italy
First of all, congrats for this huge and helpful dataset!Secondly, how can I recover the data for Biodiesel production and see them in the chart/table? The Source button seem not to do any changes.. Thanks a lot again
11/28/2016 - Colombia
It would be easier, if when using metric units, instead of writing "billion kWh" you would specify whether this is 10^9 (as in english speaking countries) or 10^12 (everywhere else). Am I correct to assume 1 billion kW equal 1 GW?
11/19/2016 - Missouri, United States
International energy - consumption per capita years 2010 and 2011 seem wildly out of line with the previous years. US goes for 308 to 69,595 in 2010? Seems incorrect
11/11/2016 - Indiana, United States
I very much liked the previous version where excel downloaded data was much easier to work with. With this new version and the way it generates excel files when we download data, it takes me a huge amount of time to effectively use a downloaded file.
11/11/2016 - Virginia, United States
Per capita consumption data for 2011 by continent is coming up strangely. For global consumption of 529 Quad BTUs, it's showing per capita 9.5 trillion BTUs (which would assume a world pop. ~56,000).
11/02/2016 - India
Hi, great work with the interface. However, there are parts of the database that we could access in the previous version, that we are unable to access here (Imports and exports of petroleum crude and products, consumption of renewable energy in QTBTU among others). It would be great if these issues were cleared up asap so as to improve usability and access to data. Thank you!
10/24/2016 - India
Hi, We are unable to download crude oil and refined petroleum products imports by country. Kindly help.
10/13/2016 - Iran
Can you please create new links for your new things? I just saved a link for total renewable electricity net consumption, every time I just use this link address, but this time because of your update, it was not found. It makes me confused, I need this data in excel format, I search all of your website, I did not find this variable data/
10/11/2016 - New York, United States
The old system to download data was much easier - why fix something that worked well. I saw a comment that person can download all countries - I can not find that. Can you please direct me to it - thanks
10/01/2016 - Texas, United States
I'm just curious why the data period ends at 2013 - it's now Oct 2016 - seems like there should be data at least thru 2015. Has the beta site been replaced? Am I just in the wrong place?
09/28/2016 - Japan
I'm using the data for elec. generation (e.g. PV or wind) for my own research. Before this version, the data were down to 3 to 4 decimal places. However, only 1 decimal seems to be shown in Beta. It would be more useful and helpful for research if some options for more decimal place were added or units could be modified (e.g. other than billion kWh for generation). Thanks.
09/13/2016 - Norway
Hi, this gives me a very interesting picture of the global energy sector. Thank you.
08/29/2016 - Texas, United States
The organization of downloaded CSV data makes the data almost unusable. All headers for each country are shown as having equal value to the country itself so the data cannot be sorted without losing the country identification. I downloaded All Countries>Crude Oil and Lease Condensate Production. Column B makes every heading equal i.e., the country and various information headings. It is unfortunate that a download cannot be directly used but it is frustrating that as an expert Excel user I cannot easily determine a way to organize the data in a way that makes it usable. Thanks, Art Berman
08/16/2016 - Texas, United States
Really helpful and easy to use.
08/12/2016 - United Kingdom
Excellent. This is much easier to navigate and use.
07/27/2016 - Brazil
Excelent job! What does the "other liquids" in Total Petroleum and Other Liquids Production 2015 include?
07/18/2016 - India
Very useful data. However, it would be great if you could mention how much of India's energy (especially oil and gas) imports come by sea, in order to get a clearer picture of India's energy imports.
06/23/2016 - United Kingdom
I was using your import figures for china i.e. the pie chart for percentage world wide imports 2014 and when added up it is 99% rather than 100.
06/22/2016 - Japan
More new information will be helpful to understand global enegy situation.
06/15/2016 - Ecuador
Srs, I am probably one of the thousands readers that are eager to learn of the new information produced by EIA. Excellent, by the way. OPEC report on revenue is very informative. Our governments always keep us in the dark. Why???. Thank you
06/07/2016 - United Kingdom
Amazing data, thank you very much!
05/25/2016 - China
Very helpful information!! Well researched, clear figures and graphs.
05/18/2016 - California, United States
There is no data available for the petroleum or natural gas reserves in the U.S.A.
05/01/2016 - Australia
It is incredibly frustrating trying to view the data you want. Today I simply want to view the imports of crude oil in bbld in South Africa. BTU is a completely unhelpful metric.
04/22/2016 - California, United States
2014?? Where are the production numbers of 2015 and up 4/22/16?
04/03/2016 - United Kingdom
Fantastic resource. Very well researched, clear and easy figures and graphs. Well organised too. Incredible useful!
03/08/2016 - District of Columbia, United States
What a handy tool, thanks!
03/06/2016 - New Jersey, United States
Well organized information with easy access.
02/15/2016 - West Virginia, United States
Very helpful information!
02/14/2016 - China
I like the old version which had a country brief.
02/09/2016 - Saudi Arabia
Excellent work for the country analysis. However, i'm struggling to cite the South African country analysis report....would appreciate if you could sent it
01/30/2016 - Spain
Your website is very useful for me as a teacher, particularly the world thematic maps. My students like it as well. Thanks a lot!
01/22/2016 - Vietnam
Useful data for my work. Thanks sincerely.
01/04/2016 - Canada
Best government website ever
01/02/2016 - Turkey
Goood
12/29/2015 - Michigan, United States
We use your 'Total Electricity Net Consumption' data for comparing countries for a market potential index we create each year. Data in the previous years was available up to 5 decimal places. However, data is available with only 1 decimal place this year (through the beta interface) and comparing countries became a challenge because there are too many countries with the same values now. Is there a way to download the full data-set with all the decimal points available?
12/22/2015 - United Kingdom
Brilliant bit of website, made my life a thousand times easier!
12/06/2015 - Argentina
Excellent!!
11/29/2015 - Malaysia
May I know if there is a latest write up on Malaysia year 2015. The one I have obtained is 2014.
11/21/2015 - Virginia, United States
Terrific article on Brazil...thank you.
11/20/2015 - Egypt
I note that the analysis of energy in Israel in this site is not covered in details as other countries?
11/17/2015 - Michigan, United States
Great PDF file on Canada's energy and trade success! Exactly what I needed to bring me up to speed for my research on Michigan and on the Midwest - thanks! (Mike at McGuire Research)
11/15/2015 - California, United States
Why are your maps so hard to copy and past? It should be easy to get a nice graph of yours.
11/12/2015 - Alabama, United States
I work with Excel spreadsheets. I looked at your Excel download function and examined your Excel spreadsheet. It appears that if I am going to load the data into my spreadsheets, I will have to do one line at a time, each country individualy.
10/06/2015 - United Kingdom
The analysis on South Korea was a very interesting and worthwhile read. Great to see such an informed analysis presented with tables to illustrate it
09/30/2015 - France
Excellent interface, very very efficient. Having global data is definitely a plus. Too bad data goes up to 2012 and does not include 2013 and 2014. Comments coming from an IT manager used to major systems with large databases.
09/12/2015 - India
I always rely on data published by EIA to make various comparisons and analysis reports. This tool makes my job much easier.
09/11/2015 - Russia
Amazing tool, thank you for such a useful application for data export .
08/16/2015 - Colorado, United States
So... Pretty! Really appreciate you guys going the extra mile with your data tools, this makes my research so much more effective. You guys have been an utter joy to work with (not a typical experience for government bureaucracy), and this new beta is the icing on the cake. Thanks for the hard work you have put in to make this information clear and understandable! Looking forward to seeing what you guys cook up in the future.
06/09/2015 - District of Columbia, United States
Why can't I download any of this to spreadsheets? Why can't I download multiple years?
06/01/2015 - Nigeria
Dear Sirs, I have been using your data for almost 20 yrs, in particular the international Petroleum data. I like the granularity provided, by country by month. Unfortunately it seems from the beta site, that I can only access the annual data and only download as a CSV file. Is that correct? regards Casper
05/31/2015 - Virginia, United States
Where are the country pages!!!? I am writing a book chapter and referenced your site, where I found terrific info on India and Japan several months ago. Unfortunately, it appears you deleted those pages. Why?
05/27/2015 - Antarctica
I really love this beautiful webpage! It is very wonderful:) I love learning about this stuff!
05/25/2015 -
I need to access country profiles in .pdf form.
05/20/2015 - New York, United States
Thank you for all the info and help over the past few years. Before the layout, I was able to find annual #s of net exports of petro for each country, and now I have no idea where it is.
05/20/2015 - New York, United States
I am looking for bbl and bcf , not Btu , can you tell me where to look for country's oil bbl and gas in bcf? Thanks
05/20/2015 - Canada
Where can I find the original spreadsheets with the country data for Crude + Condensate and the one for all liquids. The new look is too complicated for me. The spreadsheet is more easily used for good analysis.
05/19/2015 - Texas, United States
Would like a link to the pdf of the entire country analysis brief.