Sinopec has agreed to pay A$600m (US$557m) for some of the assets of Australia’s AED Oil in the Timor Sea, which will be China’s first Australian oil acquisition.

The deal follows overseas mining and energy acquisitions by Chinese companies aimed at fuelling the country’s economic boom. Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco) last month spent US$14.1bn in conjunction with Canada’s Alcoa to buy into the UK-listed arm of Rio Tinto.