Vietnam Paid $1 Billion NOT to Drill Its Own Oil

Vietnam found oil at Vanguard Bank (Bai Tu Chinh) - about 160 nautical miles off its coast, well inside its own exclusive economic zone. Spain's Repsol was hired and ready to drill. Then Beijing applied pressure. In July 2017 and again in March 2018, Hanoi ordered the drilling stopped - the Red Emperor (Ca Rong Do) project died just as the rig was about to sail. By 2020, PetroVietnam had paid roughly US$1 billion in termination and compensation costs to Repsol and Mubadala for the cancelled blocks. In 2019, China sent the survey ship Haiyang Dizhi 8 with armed coast guard escorts into Vietnam's EEZ for months - a standoff at Vanguard Bank that the US called 'bullying.' China's nine-dash line claim there was rejected by a 2016 international tribunal, but its coast guard still patrols Vietnam's oil blocks today. Vietnam paid a billion dollars not to drill its own oil - and China never fired a shot. Follow Money Maps for more geopolitics, mapped. #Vietnam #VanguardBank #SouthChinaSea #China #Oil #Geopolitics #MoneyMaps #Shorts