OREANDA-NEWS. November 25, 2014. Norway, western Europe’s largest crude oil producer, says it welcomes China as a partner in efforts to develop Arctic energy resources.

The Nordic country is doing business with China’s Cnooc Ltd. (883) as it tries to find oil off Iceland’s shores. The Chinese company is also looking into exploring Norway’s eastern Barents Sea, an area where licenses will be awarded in 2016.

“China is one of the countries that like to participate in the north in cooperation with the countries that have sovereignty in the high north,” Norway Oil and Energy Minister Tord Lien said in an interview yesterday in Iceland. “International cooperation on developing energy resources and other resources is not a bad thing, it’s a good thing.”

The welcoming tone comes amid a freeze in relations between China and Norway after the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. China reacted with anger when the Oslo-based Nobel Committee gave the award to political dissident Liu Xiaobo.

The world’s second-biggest economy is trying to gain access to energy sources needed to fuel its growth. Part of that plan involves the Arctic, which may hold more than 20 percent of the globe’s undiscovered oil and gas resources.

“We like to cooperate with oil and gas energy producing companies from everywhere in the world,” said Lien. “And if they are skilled and good at what they are doing, that’s what’s important for us.”