The revamping of China's Sinopec continues under its intrepid chairman.

The oil giant, also known as China Petroleum & Chemical Corp., announced Thursday that the Hong Kong and Shanghai-listed unit would acquire overseas oil and gas assets from its parent Sinopec Group. The move is expected to help improve returns at Sinopec Corp., which analysts believe has been stymied by its bias towards downstream operations.

Sinopec did not specify any timetable for the acquisitions but added that the parent plans to divest its remaining chemicals business within five years.

According to Barclays Capital, Sinopec Corp. uses 45% of its capital on refining, the highest within the sector. That's been a slight drag on the company’s returns, as Beijing keeps prices artificially low for gas sold to consumers. Refiners bear the cost of that and often end up selling it at a loss.

Sinopec has been steadily diversifying away from that refining bias by acquiring assets all over the world, led by Fu Chengyu, chairman of both the parent and Sinopec Corp. Those acquisitions include some $17 billion in North America alone since 2010. During his time at the helm of state-owned peer Cnooc, Mr. Fu also helped build the company into a geographically-diversified oil major.

Sinopec was flat in Hong Kong trading at midday.