Wedoany.com Report-Nov 5,   Thailand will press ahead with a plan to restart talks with Cambodia to jointly explore petroleum reserves worth an estimated $300 billion in a disputed offshore area, disregarding opposition from some political groups and activists. 

Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said on Monday negotiations will be held under a memorandum of understanding signed between Thailand and Cambodia in 2001, when the two countries formally agreed to talk about how to delimit and exploit a 26,000-square kilometer block in the Gulf of Thailand. The two countries have squabbled over the area since the 1970s. 

The issue of the maritime dispute has become a hot-button issue in Thailand, with the opposition Palang Pracharath Party and pro-nationalist activists saying any talks under the 2001 agreement will cause Thailand to lose sovereignty over the island Ko Kut. While Cambodia drew a delineation line around the island in its unilateral continental shelf claim in 1972, Thailand rejected it and asserted the region as its own a year later. 

READ: Thailand Eyes $300 Billion Gas Field Frozen by Cambodia Dispute 

The island is not in any danger of being claimed by Cambodia, and Thailand cannot just call off the agreement unilaterally, Paetongtarn told reporters after a meeting with coalition parties over the issue. The agreement dictated that territorial claims must be discussed at the same time as joint resource development of the area that’s estimated to contain about 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 300 million barrels of crude oil. 

The overlapping claims area issue resurfaced after Paetongtarn made a policy statement to the parliament in September, which listed negotiations with Cambodia as one of her administration’s top 10 urgent goals as the country seeks to boost its dwindling natural gas reserves and contain electricity prices and a ballooning fuel imports bill.