Can Thailand, Cambodia unlock massive oil and gas reserves?
Key takeaways
- An estimated $300 billion in oil and gas reserves is sitting under overlapping territory in the Gulf of Thailand.
- Earlier this month, Phnom Penh filed a notice for "compulsory consultation" under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which Cambodia and Thailand are both party to.
- In effect, that invited Thailand to join Cambodia in UN-backed conciliation talks over their 26,000 square kilometers of overlapping claims in the Gulf of Thailand.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
An estimated $300 billion in oil and gas reserves is sitting under overlapping territory in the Gulf of Thailand. Cooperation is complicated by political tensions over a separate land border dispute.
https://p.dw.com/p/5GFFh Thailand's old gas and oil fields have been in decline for a few years Image: Luca Tettoni/robertharding/picture alliance Advertisement Cambodia and Thailand are trying out an obscure United Nations tool to try and settle a decades-long maritime territorial dispute that could lead to unlocking hundreds of billions of dollars in oil and gas reserves.
Earlier this month, Phnom Penh filed a notice for "compulsory consultation" under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which Cambodia and Thailand are both party to.