evidence: I emphasize this point of state-led offshore fossil fuel developmentalisms and military-related energy security fears by contrasting the governmental agendas and marine space appropriations after decolonization with the earlier projects. The aforementioned earlier offshore drilling had taken place since the late nineteenth century within the already claimed territorial waters of Japan and Brunei (or in a Burmese river). The Japanese government now provided funding to fully explore the archipelago’s territorial waters. Moreover, what also emerged during the 1950s and 1960s was state-led, large-scale marine space appropriation that stretched from the continental shelf of the Persian Gulf to the South China Sea and further north. After all, in terms of legal frameworks, structural choice limitations did not inhibit this development. The spatial appropriation and the new legal regimes that Asian political elites could create thus emphasize their agency vis-à-vis oil companies, whether private or public.