Sinochem aims to quadruple overseas oil output by 2020

China's Sinochem Corp aims to nearly quadruple its overseas oil and gas output to 300,000 barrels oil equivalent per day by 2020, building three production hubs in Colombia, Brazil and the Middle East, company sources said.

The plan will require billions of dollars in investment from the state-run company that is largely a trader of oil and fertiliser, and a property developer.

Sinochem, which posted a record net profit of about 13 billion yuan ($2.06bn) for last year, said last November that it planned to raise up to $5.5bn from an initial public offering in Shanghai.

In January, Sinochem agreed to acquire Total SA's stakes in several oil pipelines and a small oilfield in Colombia.

The company did not disclose the value of the deal, which adds to its $878m purchase in 2009 of then London-listed Emerald Energy, which operates in the South American nation and provides infrastructure to develop blocks.

Sinochem has long aspired to become an integrated company with upstream oil and gas assets, refineries and petrol stations, joining the same league as oil giants such as PetroChina Co Ltd and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp (Sinopec) .

The company's plan to build its first fully-owned oil refinery in China's Fujian province - the $4.6bn, 240,000-bpd Quanzhou plant - is awaiting central government approval that is taking longer than expected.

"One of the reasons for the slow regulatory approval is that the government believes we don't have sufficient resources to back up the refinery. That's why we want to accelerate upstream investment," said a company official.

Sinochem wants to pump 100,000 barrels oil equivalent per day (boepd) by 2020 from each of the three key points of operation - Colombia, Brazil and Middle East, the latter in Syria and Yemen and the United Arab Emirates.

For now, it produces just under 80,000 boepd nearly a decade after it launching its upstream business.

Sinochem said operations in Colombia had been curbed by a lack of infrastructure to ship the oil out of the jungles in which it operates, pumping about 5,000 bpd oil, far below its eventual target of more than 30,000 bpd.

The sources said that was the reason behind the January deal to buy Total's pipelines stakes.

In Brazil, Sinochem agreed last month to buy a 10 per cent stake in five offshore oil blocks in the Espirito Santo basin from London-based Perenco, a deal that extends Sinochem's reach offshore Brazil after its $3bn acquisition in 2010 of some of Statoil ASA's deepsea assets in Peregrino.