China Daily is reporting that Sinopec is buying ConocoPhillips' stake in Syncrude for $4.65 billion.  This on top of purchases last year by Sinopec of a piece of Total's oil sands project, and by PetroChina of the Athabasca Oil Sands Corp.

This is interesting in light of last month's Chinese trade deficit of ~$7.2 billion (Xinhua), attributed to the cost of commodity imports (including oil).  A report late last month put Chinese petroleum use growth at about 5% for the next five years.  More deficits to come, perhaps.