China has made its first big foray into Iraq in a C$8bn (£4.4bn) deal to buy London-listed oil explorer Addax Petroleum. The board of Addax, which is also listed in Toronto and based in Switzerland, has recommended a C$52.80 per share offer from Sinopec, the Chinese state oil and gas company. Addax has oil assets in West Africa and the Middle East, particularly the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. The company has increased its crude oil production from 8.8m barrels per day ten to 134.7m barrels per day over the last ten years. There has been a scramble for oil assets in Iraq's Kurdish region, which is more open to foreign investment than Baghdad. Heritage Oil, also a London listed explorer, agreed to buy Addax's partner in Kurdistan, Turkey's Genel Energy, for £1.5bn earlier this month. Addax and Genel both produce oil at... [read full story]
