China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), one of China's biggest state owned oil refiners, plans to acquire the £1.1 billion (US$2.17 billion) London-listed Imperial Energy.

Sinopec plans to offer more than US$ 2.5 billion for Imperial Energy, a Russia based oil and gas explorer, the Sunday Telegraph reported recently. The two companies have been in talks since last week.

The Sinopec bid is higher than last month's offer of just under US$2.5 by India's Oil & Natural Gas Company (ONGC). Yet experts said it is still hard to tell which company will win the bid. Sinopec insiders said it is possible that both companies will take a stake in the Russian Company. According to the Oriental Morning Post, Imperial Energy said it had received an offer of about US$ 25.5 per share in June, but declined to reveal the identity of the bidder.

Established in 2004, Imperial Energy was producing 10,000 barrels of oil a day by the end of December 2007. The company aims to produce 80,000 barrels a day by 2011.

For more details, please read the full story in Chinese (http://www.dfdaily.com/node2/node27/node124/userobject1ai107069.shtml).

(China.org.cn August 4, 2008)