A Philippine company said Tuesday it had held talks with a Chinese energy giant about jointly developing a potentially lucrative gas field in the hotly disputed South China Sea.

The reported negotiations between Philex Petroleum and China National Offshore Oil Corporation come as the two nations are locked in an increasingly tense territorial dispute over the area.

Philex Petroleum chairman Manuel Pangilinan said he met officials from state-owned CNOOC, China's biggest oil and gas producer, last week to discuss development of Reed Bank in the South China Sea.

"I met with CNOOC in Beijing. We discussed SC 72," he told reporters, referring to the Philippine exploration block covering part of Reed Bank that was awarded to Philex.

Pangilinan said CNOOC had invited him to Beijing but refused to give further details about the substance or outcome of the discussions.

Philex Petroleum said last month the field at Reed Bank could hold 4.66 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas, nearly twice as big as the Philippines' largest known deposits.

Reed Bank is about 148 kilometres (92 miles) off the Philippine island of Palawan. But China claims nearly all of the South China Sea, even waters close to the coasts of Southeast Asian nations.

The Philippines last year accused Chinese vessels of harassing a Philex-contracted exploration vessel at Reed Bank, one of the first incidents in a series that has dramatically escalated tensions between the two countries.

In a speech before Congress last year, Philippine President Benigno Aquino vowed to defend the country's claim to Reed Bank.

However Aquino has also since expressed a willingness to jointly develop the area, as long as it is done under Philippine law.

The Philippines and China have for the past month stationed ships at Scarborough Shoal, more than 400 kilometres to the north of Reed Bank, in an effort to assert their sovereignty over that part of the South China Sea.