CNOOC Ltd. is sizing up the potential for oil exploration in Norway’s Arctic as China’s biggest offshore producer ignores a freeze in the two countries’ relations since the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.
The state-owned Chinese company and its Canadian subsidiary, Nexen Inc., are looking at buying seismic data covering an area of the Barents Sea where licenses will be awarded in 2016, according to a Sept. 30 e-mail to the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. Bloomberg News obtained the message through a freedom-of-information request.
China reacted with anger after the Oslo-based Nobel Committee awarded the Peace Prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in 2010. Yet the deterioration in ties has done little to stem business interests as the world’s second-biggest economy seeks access to energy sources needed to fuel growth. Part of that plan involves establishing a foothold in the Arctic, which could hold more than 20% of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas resources.
A CNOOC Beijing-based spokeswoman couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
The company’s bid for Arctic exploration follows deals between China National Petroleum Corp. and Russian companies for oil imports and exploration.
Norway’s government, which took office last year, has made improved relations with China a top foreign-policy goal. The Conservative-led administration has gone to great lengths to avoid angering China further, including snubbing Tibetan leader Dalai Lama—another Nobel Peace prize laureate—during his visit to Norway in May.
Business, Politics
CNOOC already has oil and gas assets in north and south America, Africa and Australia. It bought Nexen for $15.1 billion in 2013 in China’s biggest overseas acquisition, expanding into the U.K. North Sea. Nexen exited Norway before it was acquired.
Statoil ASA, 67% owned by the Norwegian state, has an office in Beijing and has had cooperation agreements with CNPC and Cnooc since before bilateral ties worsened in 2010.
CNOOC also became a partner of Norway’s fully state-owned company Petoro AS in an exploration license off Iceland’s shores last year. While its subsidiary China Oilfield Services Ltd. operates rigs off Norway, a successful bid in the 23rd licensing round would make it the first Chinese company to obtain a production license in the Nordic country.
Price Tag
More than half of the blocks proposed in the round are located in an unexplored area disputed by Russia until a demarcation deal in 2010. Norway’s Barents Sea holds more than 40% of the country’s undiscovered crude and natural-gas resources, or 8 Bboe, according to the NPD.
In CNOOC’s e-mail, a Nexen contract analyst based in Uxbridge, U.K., inquired about administration costs related to the acquisition of the 2-D seismic data covering the so-called Barents Sea southeast and the seabed around the Arctic Jan Mayen island. The price is 12 million kroner ($1.8 million) plus taxes, according to an NPD order form released to Bloomberg.
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