CNOOC’s subsidiary Nexen has inquired about the price of seismic 2D data for Barents sea sectors to be licensed in 2016, says Bloomberg. The data are being sold by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.

Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv already calls this China ‘hunting for Norwegian oil’.

Another CNOOC subsidiary, COSL or China Oilfield Services (中海油服), has been operating rigs in Norway for quite some time. A $150m lawsuit their brought against Statoil, which I wrote about one year ago, was settled last June for less than half that money.

Meanwhile in Iceland, CNOOC’s partner Eykon are saying they might start acquiring seismic data next summer in the sector they own a license for, in the Jan Mayen area.

Last year I wrote a background article on CNOOC in Iceland and elsewhere. By not reading it, you’re missing out on plenty of CNOOC trivia you could enliven dinner parties with this weekend.