A unit of Sinopec Group has agreed to purchase a 50 percent stake in Vesta Terminals B.V. from Mercuria Energy Group, the first time a state-owned Chinese company has acquired European oil depots.

Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed Sinopec Kantons Holdings Ltd. plans to spend EUR 128.6 million ($165 million) on the transaction in a deal that also includes the option to wholly acquire a Brazil-based storage project, the unit said in a filing with the Hong Kong bourse on Monday.

Vesta Terminals operates three oil and products terminals with a combined storage capacity of 1.6 million cubic meters in Belgium, the Netherlands and Estonia. Geneva-based Mercuria Energy is one of the world's five largest energy trading houses.

"Sinopec Group is looking to enter Europe's oil storage market through the acquisition," oil analyst Dong Lizhu told Interfax. The terminals in the Netherlands and Belgium are both included in the Intercontinental Exchange Inc. and Platts trading platform.

"This investment will support Sinopec Group's international trade of refined oil by enabling Sinopec Group to participate in Platts transactions as well as creating synergies between the company's existing oil storage and trade businesses," said Kenny Cheung, a Hong Kong-based analyst with investment bank Core Pacific-Yamaichi.

In an Oct. 16 research note, Cheung wrote Vesta Terminals would "contribute immediately" to Sinopec Kantons' bottom line. Vesta Terminals' main income is from storage revenues, service fees and throughput revenues, Sinopec Kantons said.

Vesta Terminals' profitability should improve from the second half of 2014 when a refining joint venture between Sinopec Group and Saudi Aramco in Saudi Arabia comes online, said Cheung.

Nomura advised Sinopec Kantons on the deal, which the company is likely to fund through internal resources and bank borrowings, analysts said.

China's state-backed oil majors are embarking on expansion in developed markets, buying up strategic infrastructure and moving into oil products trading.

The country is on track to becoming a major refining powerhouse in the coming years, helped by the growing international footprint of its oil companies, the International Energy Agency said in a recent report.

Sinopec Group has started work on a terminal capable of storing up to 16 million barrels of crude and refined fuels in Indonesia, the first overseas project of its kind for the company, Interfax reported last week.