All those oil and gas deposits everyone wants in the South China Sea may not even be there

As it stands, six countries claim conflicting territorial rights in the long-simmering South China Sea dispute. As anyone will tell you, one of the main drivers of this conflict is the “sizable deposits of oil and gas” believed to reside in the area. But what if that’s actually a lie? A new report by the U.S. Energy and Information Administration finds that the contested areas of the South China Sea do not have large conventional oil and natural gas resources:

The Spratly Islands and Paracel Islands are two of the most contested areas (see dark blue islands on map above). However, unlike other parts of the South China Sea, these areas have not been assessed to hold large (conventional) resources of oil and natural gas…. EIA’s analysis shows that most fields containing discovered oil and natural gas are clustered in uncontested parts of the South China Sea, close to shorelines of the coastal countries, and not near the contested islands. Industry sources suggest almost no oil and less than 100 billion cubic feet of natural gas in proved and probable reserves exist in fields near the Spratly Islands. The Paracel Island territory has even less natural gas and no oil.

Below is an EIA map of proved and probable oil and gas reserves in the area:

So maybe going to war over the disputed islands isn’t such a great idea? Worth considering.