A China Coast Guard vessel and Chinese fishing trawlers during a resupply mission to the BRP Sierra Madre in the South China Sea on Nov. 10.
Photographer: Lisa Marie David/BloombergThe Big Take
Xi’s Armada Is Winning the Battle for Energy in the South China Sea
Tensions are soaring, but Southeast Asian nations are struggling to push back on Beijing’s contested claims and tap the energy resources their growing economies need.
This was supposed to be the year that Vietnam reaped the benefits from one of its largest natural gas discoveries.
An estimated 150 billion cubic meters of the fuel, enough to power a city the size of Hanoi for decades, was discovered 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Vietnam’s central coast in 2011. If all had gone to plan, the “Blue Whale” project led by Exxon Mobil Corp. would have gone online late last year.