March 31, 2008
PHNOM PENH - Cambodia is willing to resume stalled talks with neighbouring Thailand over how to divide up offshore energy resources along their disputed sea border, a top official said Friday.
Both Thailand and Cambodia are not able to tap into the potentially rich reserves due to a disagreement involving overlapping claims to undersea oil and natural gas fields in the Gulf of Thailand, according to AFP.
Leaders from both countries failed to hammer out a formal arrangement in 2006 during the ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra visit to Cambodia last time.
But Te Duong Tara, director-general, of Cambodia's National Petroleum Authority, said he hoped talks could resume as early as after mid-April.
Te Duong Tara said Cambodia is seeking a 50-50 split of the disputed area, while Thailand wants a larger share of the fields.
Cambodia expects to begin oil production in its own offshore fields in 2011 amid warnings that new-found petroleum reserves did not guarantee instant prosperity for the impoverished country.
Following the discovery of oil in 2005 by the US energy giant Chevron, Cambodia was quickly feted as the region's next potential petro-state, sitting on an estimated hundreds of millions of barrels of crude, and three times as much natural gas in six blocks located off of the coast.
But it remains unclear how much of the black gold can actually be recovered, or whether any potential revenue would be used to benefit Cambodia, ranked among the world's most corrupt countries.
