CITIC Resources Holdings Ltd, the Hong Kong-listed arm of conglomerate CITIC Group, completed the purchase of 51 percent of an Indonesian oilfield for US$97 million.

CITIC Resources bought the stake in the Seram Non-Bula block from KUFPEC, a subsidiary of Kuwait Petroleum Corp, the company said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange yesterday.

The company may buy a further 2.5 percent in the Indonesian oilfield from a unit of Australian-listed Lion Energy Ltd for US$4.8 million, said the statement.

The deal is CITIC Resources' first-ever overseas oil asset acquisition. It will allow the company to explore, develop and produce oil from Seram Island Non-Bula Block until 2019.

Seram Island Non-Bula Block's principal oil field, Oseil Field, had an estimated gross oil reserve of about 39 million barrels by December 2005, including 7 million barrels of proven reserves. It produced an average of 4,300 barrels of oil per day in the first half of 2006.

The purchase of Indonesia's oil field was the company's first step in entering the oil reserves market, particularly in Southeast Asia, Shou Xuancheng, vice chairman of CITIC Resources told China Daily.

The company said earlier in October it plans to buy Nations Energy Co's oil assets in Kazakhstan for US$1.91 billion.

The purchase, which requires approval from shareholders and the governments of Canada and Kazakhstan, would be China's third-largest acquisition of overseas oil assets.

The deal follows China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC)'s purchase of PetroKazakhstan(PK) last year.

As China's largest oil company, CNPC successfully acquired Canada-based PetroKazakhstan last October.

Its bid for PK is US$55 per share, totaling US$4.18 billion, which is the largest overseas takeover transaction ever made by a Chinese company.

(China Daily November 28, 2006)