The US Energy Information Agency reckons there could be
around 11bn barrels of oil and 190tn cubic feet of natural gas there and that
is not even the entire area. The Chinese National Offshore Oil Company puts the
number at 125bn barrels of oil and 500tn cubic feet in undiscovered resources.
China said it was ''strongly dissatisfied'' after a U.S. spy
plane flew over part of the South China Sea this week near where China is
building artificial islands, and called on the United States to stop such
action or risk causing an accident. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei
said the Chinese military drove away the aircraft, in accordance with relevant
regulations. He labelled the U.S. action a security threat to China's islands
and reefs.
Pentagon spokesman, Colonel Steve Warren, said the Poseidon
had not gone within 12-mile (19-km) territorial limits that China claims around
the artificial islands but said this could happen in the future. "We don't
recognize those islands as anything other than international space."
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