Sinopec pays $1.2 bln for Lukoil stake in Kazakhstan assets

The Beijing-based company known as Sinopec agreed to buy Lukoil's 50 percent of Caspian Investment Resources Ltd., which holds stakes in four projects in the central Asian nation. Sinopec and its parent already own the other half of the company via a joint venture, Bloomberg reports. The deal will give Sinopec additional hydrocarbon production of 10.2 million barrels of oil equivalent, as of 2013, Russia's second-largest oil producer said yesterday in a statement. The purchase highlights the push by China, the world's biggest energy consumer, to secure diverse energy assets abroad to meet rising demand at home. "While there has been speculation of reduced interest in M&A by Chinese oil majors given a more uncertain commodity price outlook, this acquisition confirms China's interest in acquiring producing assets at attractive valuation levels," Neil Beveridge, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., said yesterday by phone. Sinopec gained 1.2 percent to HK$6.97 in Hong Kong trading as at 9:36 a.m. local time, compared with the 0.5 percent gain in the benchmark Hang Seng Index. State-owned Sinopec said in March last year it would form a $3 billion joint venture with its parent China Petrochemical Corp. to replace dwindling overseas reserves with oil and gas assets in Kazakhstan, Colombia and Russia. Details also at