Sinopec to buy Nigeria’s oil blocks worth $2.4bn

Daily Trust [12/11/12]

China’s Sinopec is close to buying stakes in Nigerian onshore oil blocks from French oil major Total worth about $2.4 billion, the Bloomberg news agency reported, citing two people familiar with the matter.

Asia’s largest refiner has signed a preliminary deal to acquire the stakes, the report said without providing more details.

Contacted by Reuters, a spokesman for Total declined to comment on the report. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corp (NNPC) was not immediately available for comment.

The French group said in September it planned to sell assets worth between $15 billion and $20 billion in the period up to 2014 as part of a bolder approach to managing its business, which has seen it buy and sell assets more frequently.

Total shares were little changed, trading down 0.06 percent by 1450 GMT while the European oil and gas sector edged 0.07 percent up. (Reuters)