Vietnam has halted an oil drilling project in the “Red Emperor” block off its southeastern coast in South China Sea licensed following pressure from China.
It would be the second time in less than a year that Vietnam has had to suspend a major oil development in the busy waterway under pressure from China.
The project was licensed to Spanish energy firm Repsol, reports Reuters on Friday.
A source with direct knowledge of the situation said ministries in Vietnam had paused the project while the decision-making politburo debates whether to suspend or indefinitely terminate the contract.
The decision, which hangs on whether the fees incurred by contract cancellation will exceed the cost of resisting Chinese pressure, is on hold until the politburo meets, the source said.
That meeting has been delayed by overseas trips by Vietnam’s prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, a series of visits by foreign dignitaries to Hanoi, and the death of former prime minister Phan Van Khai on Saturday.
“The ministries are determined to terminate the contract,” said the source, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation.
A source with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed that the project, which is a joint venture with state oil company PetroVietnam, had been stopped following pressure from China.
A source said high-level executives had been discussing how to respond to the pressure, which had been applied both directly by China, and indirectly via Vietnam.
A spokesman for Repsol in Madrid declined to comment. PetroVietnam executives declined to comment. The Vietnamese foreign ministry did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.
Asked at a regular briefing if China had pressed either Vietnam or Repsol, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she did not know where such news had come from, but did not elaborate.
“We hope the relevant sides can work together to maintain the hard-earned positive situation in the South China Sea,” she said.
Red Emperor, known in Vietnamese as the Ca Rong Do field, is part of Block 07/03 in the Nam Con Son basin, 440 km (273 miles) off the coast of Vietnam’s southern city of Vung Tau.