Thai holiday island at center of dispute with Cambodia over offshore gas

Thailand and Cambodia have for decades both claimed a 27,000-square-kilometer (10,425-square-mile) area of the Gulf of Thailand believed to be rich in natural gas, with pressure growing for them to resolve the dispute and share the resources as demand for energy rises.


But a Cambodian claim to part of Thailand’s Koh Kood, or Kood Island, is preventing progress towards a resolution and is stirring nationalist anger, especially in Thailand, whose navy has been staging exercises at the island.


What is at stake?


The dispute centers on a disputed stretch of the Gulf of Thailand known as the overlapping claims area (OCA) that could contain up to 11 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, Thai energy authorities say. No exploration has been done because of the dispute. Demand for energy is rising in both neighbors and the Petroleum Institute of Thailand (PTIT), has been leading a push for more talks on sharing the gas.


Koh Kood is at the northern edge of the OCA.


The island


Koh Kood is Thailand’s fourth largest island. About 25 kilometers (15 miles) long and 10 kilometers (6 miles) wide. Traditionally, its Thai inhabitants fished and farmed. It has recently become a holiday destination with some 300,000 people arriving a year for its quiet beaches and diving, most by boat from mainland Thai towns to the north.


The history


Thailand says that in 1904 France, the colonial power in Indochina, ceded Koh Kood to what was then independent Siam. The border between Thailand and French-ruled Indochina was settled with the Franco-Siamese Treaty of 1907. Its main element was the return to Cambodia of its northwest, including its Angkor temple complex. The maritime border was not clearly defined. In 1972, Cambodia said that based on the 1907 treaty, the maritime border was a line from the terminus of their land boundary on the coast to the highest point on Koh Kood, about 35 km (22 miles) to the west, staking a claim to the southern half of the island.


Thailand says the whole of Koh Kood belongs to it under the agreements with France. In 1973, in response to Cambodia’s assertion the previous year, Thailand set down a claim over Koh Kood and much of the Gulf of Thailand to its southwest.


Thai politics


In 2001, the Thai government of then pro-business Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra reached a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on the OCA with Cambodia that stipulated discussion on profit sharing from its resources should take place at the same time as talks on agreeing the OCA’s boundary.


Conservatives opposed to Thaksin worried about giving too much away to Cambodia and no progress was made on the MOU. The rivalry between Thaksin and the conservatives still shapes politics in Thailand, where a government led by Thaksin’s daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, is in power.


Calls for the resumption of talks on sharing the offshore gas have again alarmed Thai patriots who vent anger online, saying the kingdom must not make concessions to Cambodia on territory or resources.


A way forward?


Both of the neighbors are increasingly in need of the energy in the OCA. Some industry experts say the only realistic solution is for an agreement on a joint development area, allowing them to gloss over political differences while pushing ahead with exploration.


The Thai government is setting out the case for talks.


“Negotiations would not bind the territorial claims of either side,” Suphanvasa Chotikajan Tang, director-general of the Department of Treaties and Legal Affairs, told a press conference on Monday.


“It doesn’t mean we would lose Koh Kood, under the Franco-Siamese Treaty it belongs to Thailand,” she said. “It’s clear.”


The Bangkok-based corporate advisory firm CLC Asia cited an unidentified Thai official in a report last year as saying discussion on the OCA was “a non-starter unless Cambodia removes its claim on part of Koh Kood.”


Thai security expert and retired army officer Nanthadej Meksawat agreed that a Cambodian concession on the island would help dispel Thai doubts.


“If Cambodia stops claiming Koh Kood, negotiations will be easier. There will be less opposition,” Nanthadej told Radio Free Asia.


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