American oil company ConocoPhillips will sell its stake in Syncrude, a leading Canadian producer of crude oil from oil sands, to China oil giant Sinopec, according to an announcement by ConocoPhilips on Tuesday morning.

Sinopec subsidiary, Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production Company (SIPC), has reached "definitive agreements" with ConocoPhillips, saying that SIPC will receive 9.03 percent of shares from Syncrude for $4.65 billion.

The transaction is anticipated to be completed in the third quarter this year after obtaining approvals from Canadian and Chinese governments.

''We really appreciate that SIPC has recognized the value of this quality asset, and this is an important step in the 10-billion-divestiture program which we announced last October,'' said Jim Mulva, chairman and chief executive of ConocoPhillips.

Last year, ConocoPhillips stated that it planned to sell $10 billion of assets over two years. It will sell almost half of the assets in 2010 and the remaining half will be sold next year. Part of the proceeds will be used to pay off debts.