BRUNEI DARUSSALAM is a small, but extremely wealthy, Sultanate situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Oil is at the heart of the Sino-Brunei dispute: “Hydrocarbon resources within its jurisdiction are estimated to run out in about 25 years, and Brunei is therefore keen to expand its sovereignty over oil rich areas.” Depending on exactly how the PRC's nine-dashed line map is portrayed, Beijing claims as much as 12,600 nm2 (43,272 km2) of territory in Brunei's EEZ. This overlap includes Louisa Reef and Rifleman Bank in the Spratly islands.

The Louisa Reef maritime area is the site of the majority of Brunei's offshore oil reserves. In September 1991, China and Brunei opened diplomatic relations after a long delay, in large part due to apprehensions among Brunei's leadership about Beijing's territorial intentions in Southeast Asia. Politically and economically, Brunei's relations with China are less extensive than most of the other members of ASEAN. Bilateral trade between the two countries has increased quickly, despite the dispute over Brunei's oil resources, from about $300 million in 2008 to over a $1 billion in 2010.

Since resolving its problems with Malaysia, Brunei's continuing SCS dispute is principally with the PRC, ROC, and Vietnam. China claims “indisputable sovereignty” over all of the Spratlys, yet to date has not lodged a full submission with the United Nations CLCS, so its exact sovereignty claims remains unclear. This chapter will examine Brunei's claims in the South China Sea first.

BRUNEI's SCS CLAIMS

During 1945, while still a British colony, the British government extended the boundaries of Borneo to include the continental shelf. Following independence, the Brunei government issued three maps in the late 1980s outlining the country's maritime claims: the Map Showing Territorial Waters of Brunei Darussalam (1987); Map Showing Continental Shelf of Brunei Darussalam (1988); and Map Showing Fishery Limits of Brunei Darussalam (19 8 8). These three maps together outlined a rectangular exclusive economic zone (EEZ) stretching 200 nautical miles from Brunei's coast, plus a continental shelf extending even further.

Contained within Brunei's EEZ and continental shelf claim are two features generally considered to be part of the Spratlys: 1) Louisa Reef (Terumbu Semarang Barat Kecil in Malay and Nan Tong Jiao in Chinese) and 2) Rifleman Bank (Bai Vung May in Vietnamese, Nanwei Tan in Chinese).