China's CNOOC Ltd. said on Thursday development work is progressing as planned
China's CNOOC Ltd. said on Thursday development work at an East China Sea natural gas field that Japan says may extend into its territory, is progressing as planned, but declined to comment on a report that it had started producing.
Whether or not output has begun, the field should be pumping gas by mid-year, straining already frayed relations between the world's second- and third-largest energy consumers, both racing to secure resources for their economic growth.
"All we can say is that the project is progressing normally," said Liu Xianzhong, an investor relations official for China's number-three oil company CNOOC which operates the field.
Liu said CNOOC had completed the production facilities and laid the pipelines, but declined to give details.
Japan says China may tap into geological structures that stretch into its own exclusive economic zone, a dispute that has added to other tensions rooted in Japan's often brutal occupation of parts of China in the early 20th century.
