l INTEREST in the off-shore petroleum resources of South-East Asia was manifested in the 1960s when development in off-shore technol ogy allowed oil companies to search beyond prospective land areas. The dramatic increases in oil prices in the early 1970s but more particularly the events of 1973 and 1974, when world oil prices were quadrupled by the oil exporting nations and major supply cutbacks were experienced by certain developed nations, further heightened this interest. Cost/price relationships had not only improved and made off-shore oil in hitherto less attractive areas commercially...