Taiwan - TAIPEI, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Taiwan's state-owned oil refinery CPC Corp., Taiwan will sign a deal with Belize next week to explore the Caribbean Sea for potentially rich oil and natural gas reserves, a company spokesman said on Saturday.

Taiwan and its diplomatic ally Belize will ink the agreement on Sept. 27 to probe 4,800 square kilometres of the ocean, CPC spokesman Chu Shao-hua said. The two sides have not committed any money, Chu said, as they do not know what they might discover.

"We need to see first if there is any oil or gas," Chu said.

Local media quoted Taiwan's ambassador to Belize calling the country "the Kuwait of Central America".

CPC said in December it would triple is overseas oil exploration budget over the following three years to boost profits to keep pump prices low and hold down inflationary pressure.

Resource-poor Taiwan has in recent years aggressively sought to broaden its sources of energy, imports of which meet around 98 percent of the island's needs.

Source: Forbes

Hmm I notice it doesn't comment about "where" the 4,800 sq. km will be.............not exactly a great tourist sighting, ya think?