China’s ambitions to expand in the resources sector were underlined on Thursday when state-owned Sinopec agreed to a C$8.3bn (US$7.2bn) takeover of a Switzerland-based oil company with interests in Africa and the oil frontier of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Sinopec, one of China’s biggest oil companies, is buying Addax, an oil producer listed in Toronto and London in a deal that would be the country’s largest ever outbound investment in the oil and gas sector, according to Dealogic.