Sinopec Said to Bid $1 bln for Afren's Oil Fields in Africa

China Petrochemical Corp. (Sinopec) (00386.HK) is buying the oil fields from British AfrenPlc for over 1 billion yuan, Bloomberg News has reported, though it has not yet been confirmed by Sinopec or Afren.

The London-based Afren had $1.8 billion of assets in Nigeria at the end of 2011 as its primary production base, contributing 92 percent of its total sales of $597 million that year, data from Bloomberg reveals. The company also operates in other Africa countries as well as Kurdistan.

The company's revenue in 2012 probably more than doubled to about $1.5 billion after production jumped to 42,830 barrels of oil equivalent a day, Afren said on Jan. 22.

Afren announced in November 2012 that the company was in talks with potential buyers about the assets in West Africa. Exxon Mobile and Glenore (00805.HK) were said to be the bidders at that time.

Also bidding was Sinopec, China's largest state-backed energy producer with a record $29 billion of energy assets abroad last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, showing the great appetite of the Chinese giant to meet with the demands of a rapidly growing Chinese economy.

Moreover, Sinopec has acquired 20 percent of the equity of the oil fields in Nigeria belonging to French Total SA for $2.46 billion in November 2012.