To cost at least US$20 billion, the project proposes to carve out a 50-km waterway across Thailand’s narrow Kra Isthmus. As China is said to have as little as seven days of oil in reserve, it is clear why its leaders are anxious to help jump-start the Kra Canal project.
The Straits, which presents the shortest sea journey between Europe, Middle East and North Asia, is one of the most important waterways in the world, and most of China’s and Japan’s oil imports pass through it.īut the Straits is narrow: The Philip Channel near Singapore is only 2.5km wide, which creates a natural bottleneck with the potential for a collision, grounding or, after the Sept 11 attacks in the United States, sabotage by terrorists.Ī large oil tanker sunk at the Philip Channel could well force vessels to take a long detour and hold up oil imports to China and Japan for weeks. The Kra Canal, which has the potential of diverting half the shipping tonnage now calling at Singapore ports up north to Thailand, will have an impact on the Republic’s economy which will be huge and permanent.Ĭhina badly needs imported oil to fuel its growth and its leaders are seriously looking at the Kra Canal as an alternative to the Straits of Malacca. Thailand has much to gain from a Kra Canal project. The failure of the deal, which would have carried up to 20 million tons of oil each year from the Russian republic of Sakha in Siberia, underscores the urgency energy-hungry China faces to ensure that Middle Eastern supplies reach its ports safely. Now, the reality of a Kra Canal in Thailand being built is fast taking shape, following the collapse of a top-level US$2 billion ($3.51 billion) pipeline deal to move oil from Russia to China.
Time and again, over the last three centuries, the vision of a vital waterway linking the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea has surfaced - along with the dire economic threat that it will pose to Singapore. What do you guys think? Yes or No to this project. Instead currently the construction of a railroad connection between Surat Thani and Phuket is discussed. The idea is still entertained by a few Thai politicians today, however the high costs as well as ecological problems make it unlikely to be realized in the near future. In the 20th century the idea resurface several times again, now changing the preferred route to connect the Bandon Bay near Surat Thani with Phangnga. In 1897 Thailand and the British empire agreed not to build a canal there, to protect the regional dominance of the harbour of Singapore. In 1882 the constructor of the Suez canal, Ferdinand de Lesseps, visited the area, but wasn't allowed to investigate in detail by the Thai king. After Burma became British colony in 1863 with Victoria Point opposite the Kra estuary as its southernmost point, an exploration was undertaken, again with negative result.
Also in the early 18th century the British East India Company became interested in a canal. In 1793 the idea resurfaced when the younger brother of King Chakri (Rama I) suggested it to make it easier to protect the western coast with military ships. It turned out to impractical with the technology of that time. As the Malay Peninsula enlarges the shipping routes around Asia significantly, a canal through the Kra Isthmus was suggested as early as 1677, when the Thai King Narai the Great asked the French engineer de Lamar to survey the possibility of building a waterway to connect Songkhla with Marid (now Myanmar).