As reported on this blog last September:
China is particularly interested in asserting sovereignty over Luconia Shoals ,Chinese Coast Guard in strategy to bully Malaysia into submitting to at least de facto control
It is believed that Malaysian authorities are wary about antagonising China in any way regardless of the rights and wrongs, and hence remain conflicted as to whether the Malaysian flag should be replanted on Luconia Shoals, preferring instead to rely on the country's skills in diplomacy.
However a recent attempt at asserting sovereignty at the United Nations has been met with the usual contempt from the Chinese delegation.As reported by the South China Morning Post:
Beijing has accused Malaysia of infringing on its sovereignty after its Southeast Asian neighbour filed an extended shelf claim in the
.
.
China’s permanent mission to the United Nations also urged the UN’s Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS) not to consider Malaysia’s submission seeking to establish the outer limits of its legal continental margin beyond the 200 nautical mile limit.
“China has internal waters, territorial sea and a contiguous zone based on its Nanhai Zhudao [the South China Sea islands]; China has an exclusive economic zone and continental shelf. China has historic rights in the South China Sea,” the Chinese mission said in a diplomatic note to United Nations secretary general Antonio Guterres last week.
It said the submission by Malaysia, which was made on Thursday, had “seriously infringed on China’s sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction in the South China Sea”.
“The Chinese government seriously requests that the commission not consider the submission by Malaysia,” the diplomatic note said.
The Chinese foreign ministry on Monday said Beijing had also lodged representations with Malaysia, saying it had infringed on China’s sovereignty and violated “international relations norms”.
END
See Also
China's Luconia Shoals adventures may add to Petronas production sharing contractors' costs -the Malaysian taxpayer bears the cost
by Ganesh Sahathevan
Malaysia has much to lose by giving in to China.Apart from access
to the basins that clearly lie within Malaysia's Exclusive Economic
Zone,there is a system of oil and gas production and collection
which has been built up over more than 40 years.
It has been previously reported on this blog that China is particularly interested in asserting sovereignty over Luconia Shoals and that the Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) seems to have launched a campaign to bully Malaysia into submitting to at least de facto control of the Shoals and the South China Sea.
Meanwhile, the CCG's habit of having its boats harass if not at least shadow oil and gas company vessels is likely to add to the .costs they incur in their work as production sharing contractors for Petronas. Petronas gets a share of profit oil from the contractors, after they deduct their costs of exploration and production. Malaysia 's membership of ASEAN, and its participation in the ZOPFAN Declaration has ensured a relatively trouble free South China Sea,,bar the problem of piracy.
Consequently PSC contractors have not had to incur the costs of protecting themselves against the risks of territorial conflict which can include. among other things, the costs of changes in regulatory regimes and the costs of guarding against aggression by the disputing parties.
Oil and gas exploration and even production is a highly speculative business and anything that adds to the risk profile can easily make even existing projects uncommercial. As a result, Petronas may see a reduced quantum of profit oil, and future revenue may be adversely impacted.
The party ultimately bearing the costs is the Malaysian taxpayer, who will have to bear the burden of making up for a lower Petronas dividend.
The Malaysian Government must know all this, so why it would simply stand aside and allow China to do as it pleases is unfathomable.
END
SEE ALSO
Malaysia has much to lose by giving in to China.Apart from access
to the basins that clearly lie within Malaysia's Exclusive Economic
Zone,there is a system of oil and gas production and collection
which has been built up over more than 40 years.
It has been previously reported on this blog that China is particularly interested in asserting sovereignty over Luconia Shoals and that the Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) seems to have launched a campaign to bully Malaysia into submitting to at least de facto control of the Shoals and the South China Sea.
Meanwhile, the CCG's habit of having its boats harass if not at least shadow oil and gas company vessels is likely to add to the .costs they incur in their work as production sharing contractors for Petronas. Petronas gets a share of profit oil from the contractors, after they deduct their costs of exploration and production. Malaysia 's membership of ASEAN, and its participation in the ZOPFAN Declaration has ensured a relatively trouble free South China Sea,,bar the problem of piracy.
Consequently PSC contractors have not had to incur the costs of protecting themselves against the risks of territorial conflict which can include. among other things, the costs of changes in regulatory regimes and the costs of guarding against aggression by the disputing parties.
Oil and gas exploration and even production is a highly speculative business and anything that adds to the risk profile can easily make even existing projects uncommercial. As a result, Petronas may see a reduced quantum of profit oil, and future revenue may be adversely impacted.
The party ultimately bearing the costs is the Malaysian taxpayer, who will have to bear the burden of making up for a lower Petronas dividend.
The Malaysian Government must know all this, so why it would simply stand aside and allow China to do as it pleases is unfathomable.
END
SEE ALSO
Sea-level lowstand of >120 m below present during the last glacial maximum (LGM) resulted in subaerial exposure of the majority of the Sunda Shelf and a dramatic increase in the land area of Southeast Asia. Modified from Sathiamurthy & Voris (2006).
Source publication
Context in source publication
Context 1
... the LGM, with sea level >120 m below present, the Sunda Shelf was emergent (e.g. Hanebuth & Statteggar, 2004) ( Figure 5) with a defined drainage pattern, much of which represented down-stream extensions and confluences of present drainage systems (Molengraaff, 1921). It is presumed that drainage patterns during previous sea-level lowstands were similar and, with each succeeding sea-level cycle, river valleys backfilled and incised in response to changes in base level. ...
Citations
... We appreciate the Comment of Parham (2019) regarding the geological evidence of subsidence of the Sunda shelf, Southeast Asia. This Comment essentially supports our analysis ( Sarr et al., 2019) by reviewing recent observations by himself (Parham, 2016) and some earlier studies, and regretfully posits that we apparently ignored some of this literature. We thank Parham for pointing at those articles, which we acknowledge provide seminal data that are useful for a broad conceptualization. ...
... Yet, our selection is not arbitrary: we retained articles that either give quantitative estimates of vertical land motion, or were relevant at the global scale. The second reflection only merely enlarges the focus: we advocate that Parham's expectations cannot be matched by the current means of dissemination of scientific results, which favor conciseness and sharpness, before comprehensive and accurate descriptions, as those of Parham (2016). This is even reinforced by the fact that a large range of these articles are difficult to reach, either because they are ancient or because they do not belong to the list of mainstream journals commonly available in academic libraries. ...
... I (Parham, 2016) hypothesized that if the Sundaland were tectonically stable during the late Cenozoic, there should be emergent evidence of higher-than-PMSL sea-level highstands that occurred during that time, particularly the last interglacial sea-level highstand (ca. 120 ka). ...
... In Peninsular Malaysia and the Sundaland part of western Sarawak, Borneo (Fig. 1), I found no evidence that relative sea level was ever higher than the mid-Holocene maximum of ~3-4 m (e.g., Horton et al., 2005;Tjia and Sharifah Mastura, 2013;Parham et al., 2014). Age analysis of paleo-sea-level indicators all produced Holocene dates, and Holocene coastal plain deposits lap directly onto much older bedrock (Parham, 2016). ...
... In the more tectonically active parts of Malaysian Borneo, north of the Sundaland boundary (Fig. 1), uplifted, horizontally bedded marine deposits (e.g., strandplain, coral reef terraces) are widespread and demonstrate that they can be well preserved and recognizable in this tropical environment. I (Parham, 2016) concluded that the lack of similar evidence on the Sundaland parts of Malaysia indicated subsidence at rates that become significant over time scales of 10 4 to 10 6 yr. ...
... The region includes extensive shallow seas, and is not significantly elevated. It was previously assumed to have been relatively stable since the Quaternary, however with more advanced research into regional tectonics and sea level change evidences, this area was found to display heterogeneity in subsidence and uplifting (Geyh et al., 1979;Tjia, 1992;Morley, 2002;Hall et al., 2004;Hutchison, 2007;Hall, 2014;Parham, 2016). Nonetheless, the central region of the shelf could be considered as stable because it has insignificant seismicity and is devoid of volcanic activity compared to its margins (Hall, 2014). ...
... This heterogeneity implies that sea level fluctuations on the shelf were complex subjected to differential crustal movements apart from eustatic sea level changes. This effect is evident from the sea level rise records in Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo (Kamalludin, 2003;Parham, 2016). This also implies that generalized sea level curve such as proposed by Hanebuth et al. (2000 and may not be suitable for sub-regional study of paleo fluvial evolution. ...
