Taiwan called Wednesday for expansion in cooperation on oil exploration and development with China amid warming ties between the two rivals.
The CPC Corp., Taiwan, the island's state-run oil refiner, said it has proposed to work with China's CNOOC Ltd. to explore possible oil reserves in the East China Sea.
"We have expressed the willingness to CNOOC to work together in the East China Sea," CPC Vice President Chu Shao-hua told AFP.
"CPC is waiting for CNOOC's response, hoping both sides will kick off talks on the proposal," he said.
CPC and CNOOC set up a joint venture in 2002 to explore oil in the Tainan Basin of the Taiwan Strait.
The Tainan Basin cooperation, however, came to a halt in 2006 amid escalating cross-strait tension under the rule of Taiwan's pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
The Tainan Basin cooperation deal, which will expire in 2010, resumed after the China-friendly Kuomintang defeated the DPP in March presidential elections.
Chu said CPC and CNOOC are looking for a location to drill a second well in the Tainan Basin after the first well failed to find anything.
Moreover, Chu said both sides are ready for talks to form a joint venture to explore in the Nanjih Islands Basin, also in the Taiwan Strait.
In 2002, the two companies agreed to survey in the Nanjih Basin but the agreement stalled as the then Taiwanese government opposed it.
