NEW YORK — China’s Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration & Production Corp. (Sinopec) is buying a 50-percent interest in 850,000 acres of Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s Mississippi Lime leasehold in northern Oklahoma.

Beijing-based Sinopec will pay $1.02 billion for the oil and natural gas play, which produced 34,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the fourth quarter of last year, according to Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake. As of Dec. 31, there were proven reserves of 140 million barrels of oil equivalent associated with the assets, which Chesapeake will continue to operate.