China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., better known as Sinopec, agreed last month to buy Addax Petroleum Corp. for about C$9.7 billion ($8.4 billion) to gain access to the Canadian target's oil fields in West Africa and Iraq. Sinopec is using David Lefebvre of Stikeman Elliott LLP in Toronto and Paul Deemer and David Blumental of Vinson & Elkins LLP in Beijing on the legal side and James Janowsky, Jason Johnson and Don Robertson of Credit Suisse Group for banking advice. Lefebvre represented Sinopec last year on its $1.8 billion acquisition of Tanganyika Oil Co. Ltd., a Canadian oil explorer that operates in Syria. V&E also advised Sinopec on that deal.

Lefebvre also advised China International Trust and Investment Corp., better known as Citic Group, on its $1.9 billion purchase of Nations Energy Co. Ltd.'s oil business in Kazakhstan. Lefebvre's partner, Chris Nixon, advised Sinopec on its $433 million agreement to buy Calgary, Alberta-based Verenex Energy Inc., which operates an oil exploration and development project in Libya with a joint venture partner. The Libyan government has held up the completion of the sale.

Addax turned to John Turner, Richard Steinberg, Aaron Atkinson and associate Krisztian Toth of Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP in Toronto. The firm advised Addax on its $450 million initial public offering in 2006 as well as its C$1.6 billion acquisition of assets of Pan-Ocean ­Energy Corp. Ltd. the same year.

On the banking side, Addax used Stewart Burton, Brad Cameron and Corey Fraiberg of RBC Capital Markets Corp., which was the lead underwriter on the IPO.

The target's board tapped Jeremy Fraiberg (no relation to Corey) and Clay Horner of Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP in Toronto on the recommendation of chairman Peter Dey, a former Osler partner, and other board members. Horner helped advise Sinopec when it paid $4.2 billion for Calgary-based PetroKazakhstan Inc. in 2005.