China has made its first big foray into Iraq in a politically controversial C$8bn (£4.4bn) deal to buy London-listed oil explorer Addax Petroleum. The board of Addax, which has premium oil assets in Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region, unanimously recommended the offer from Sinopec, the Chinese state oil and gas company. Sinopec has offered to pay C$52.80 per share in the deal, calling it "transformational" for China's energy stability, A takeover in Kurdistan is an extreme political risk for China, just days before the Iraqi oil minister is due to award multi-billion-pound contracts to produce oil in the country. A long-running dispute means ministers in Baghdad have threatened to blacklist any oil companies operating in the northern Kurdish region. This could rule out Chinese state energy companies from picking up the... [read full story]
