China's Sinopec eyes stake in energy firm Addax: report

China's top refiner Sinopec is planning to take over oil and gas producer Addax Petroleum Corp. for as much as eight billion dollars, state press reported Thursday.

The Chinese company is in preliminary talks with Addax, which is listed in Toronto and London and has offices in Switzerland and Canada, for the acquisition, the China Daily reported.

An unnamed Sinopec spokesman said his firm is in talks with "several overseas companies for possible deals," but declined to comment further, the report said.

Addax said in a statement on Monday that "it has held preliminary discussions with third parties expressing an interest in a potential transaction with the corporation," without elaborating.

Addax's oil and gas assets are based mainly in West Africa and the Middle East, with core assets in Nigeria, the China Daily reported.

The company said it produced an average of 134,700 barrels of crude oil a day in the first quarter of 2009.

Currently the three major Chinese oil producers -- PetroChina, Sinopec and CNOOC -- all have operations in Nigeria, and Sinopec is a partner in one of Addax's properties in the African country, the report said.

It added that CNOOC is reportedly planning a bid of as much as four billion dollars for the principal assets of US-based Kosmos Energy LLC, which is selling 30 percent stake in the Jubilee oilfield off the coast of Ghana.

PetroChina Chairman Jiang Jiemin had earlier said the company "would take advantage of the relatively low oil price to make sizeable and sustained growth in its overseas operations," the report said.

It will boost cooperation with national oil companies in resource-rich countries such as Kazakhstan, Venezuela and Qatar this year, he said.

World oil prices have slumped by over 50 percent since scaling historic peaks of more than 147 dollars a barrel in July, as the global economic and financial crisis has reduced energy demand.