Apache Corporation (NYSE, Nasdaq: APA) today announced completion of its previously disclosed sale of a one-third minority participation in its Egypt oil and gas business to Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production Corporation. After customary closing adjustments, Apache received $2.95 billion in cash.

Apache will continue to operate the Egypt upstream oil and gas business.

"We welcome Sinopec as our new partner in Egypt; together, we will continue to deliver the tremendous hydrocarbon resources in the Western Desert at attractive rates of return," said G. Steven Farris, Apache's chairman and chief executive officer. "We also look forward to working together in other parts of the world.

"With this transaction, Apache has completed $7 billion in asset sales in the process of rebalancing our portfolio toward assets with predictable growth rates and attractive rates of return," Farris said.

Pro forma for the partnership with Sinopec, the previously completed sale of Gulf of Mexico shelf assets and previously disclosed asset sales in Canada, Apache's third-quarter 2013 production from North American onshore assets would have comprised approximately 56 percent of total production, up from 32 percent in 2009. Also on a pro forma basis, Egypt's contribution would have declined from 26 percent to 16 percent during the same interval.

About Apache

Apache Corporation is an oil and gas exploration and production company with operations in the United States, Canada, Egypt, the United Kingdom, Australia and Argentina.

About Sinopec

China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) is a super-large petroleum and petrochemical enterprise group established in July 1998 on the basis of the former China Petrochemical Corporation. Sinopec Group is a state-owned company solely invested by the State, functioning as a state-authorized investment organization in which the state holds the controlling share. Headquartered in Beijing, Sinopec Group has a registered capital of RMB 182 billion.