Taiwan plans to start exploring for oil and gas in the South China Sea from next year, an official and local media said Friday, in a development that could increase tensions in the contested waters. The Bureau of Mines and state-run oil supplier CPC Corp are expected to kick off exploration in 2013 in the sea around Taiping, the biggest islet in the Spratly archipelago, the United Daily News website and other media reported.

Jerry Ou, head of the Bureau of Energy, announced the plan Thursday in parliament, the paper said, adding that a budget of Tw$17 million ($585,000) had been set aside for the project. "At the moment, it's something that's being planned by the government, and we haven't received any details yet," an official with CPC Corp told AFP, declining to be named.

The Bureau of Energy declined comment, while the Bureau of Mining was not immediately available for a reaction to the report. Taiwan, which does not have any oil resources of its own and is dependent on imports mainly from the Middle East and Africa, would seem to have solid economic reasons for looking for new energy reserves.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012