Statoil Fears Set Back in China Shale Stakes

Statoil ASA said talks on buying a stake in Chinese shale gas assets have faltered after the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to a Chinese dissident.

"We're still suffering from the fact that the Chinese don't quite understand why we did this," Peter Mellbye, head of international development and production for Norway's biggest energy producer, told Bloomberg.

The Chinese government had warned the award to Liu Xiaobo would undermine relations between the two nations.

In November, Statoil chief executive Helge Lund, indicated that the decision by the Norwegian Nobel committee had not derailed the group’s ambitions.

“We are in the process of entering into an agreement to look at [shale gas] opportunities in China,” he told the Financial Times, at that time without giving further details.

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