Sinopec to acquire National Star
( 2001-06-13 00:06 ) (9 )

China's No 2 oil giant China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) said Tuesday that it had agreed to acquire Sinopec National Star from its parent Sinopec Group Co for 6.45 billion yuan (US$779 million).

The acquisition is expected to greatly strengthen the oil and gas exploration and production of the refinery-heavy Sinopec and will slash the company's production costs, Sinopec said in a statement.

The oil conglomerate, which imports 60 per cent of the crude oil it processes, said following the acquisition, its proved reserves would increase by 20 per cent to 3.74 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Its natural gas production would increase by 68 per cent to 134 billion cubic feet, and its production costs would be lowered by 6.5 per cent to US$6.2 a barrel of oil equivalent.

Sinopec National Star, China's fourth largest oil and gas producer, was transferred to the Sinopec Group last year in China's reform sweep in the oil sector. Its proven reserves of crude oil are estimated at 221 million barrels and its gas reserves at 2,409 billion cubic feet.

The statement said the acquisition price equals 9.13 billion yuan (US$1.1 billion) for the enterprise value of Sinopec National Star, taking into account Sinopec National Star's net debt of about 2.68 billion yuan (US$324 million) as of the end of 2000.

The price represents US$1.77 per barrel of oil equivalent of Sinopec National Star's proven oil and natural gas reserves of about 622 million barrels of oil equivalent.

The company said the deal would be funded by proceeds from its proposed A-share issue of up to 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion). The issuance is widely expected to be completed within the next two months.

Sinopec said it would convene a shareholders meeting for the approval of the deal as soon as possible.

Sinopec Star, which posted a post-taxation revenue of US$600 million last year, plans to invest US$607 million in oil and gas exploration and to pour US$2 billion into oil and gas production over the next five years.

It now undertakes exploration and development activities in six principal oil and gas basins: West China's Tarim, Sichuan, Ordos, Northeast China's Songliao, East China's Subei and the East China Sea Basin.

Following the acquisition, Sinopec hopes to get involved in offshore oil production through its Sinopec Star. Sinopec is negotiating with the China National Offshore Oil Corp, China's largest offshore oil producer, to form a 50-50 joint venture to develop the gas-rich Xihu Basin in the East China Sea which was discovered by Sinopec Star.

The recoverable gas reserves in the basin are estimated at about 300 billion cubic metres.

Shares of Sinopec, which was listed in Hong Kong, New York and Longdon last year, were down 0.6 per cent to HK$1.53 (19.6 US cents) Tuesday in the Hong Kong stock exchange, but it has risen by about 30 per cent in the past three months.