Carlyle Group Set To Raise $4B For New Oil And Gas Fund

One of the world’s biggest private equity firms—the Carlyle Group—is looking to raise US$4 billion for a new fund to invest in oil and gas assets as it seeks to seize opportunities after oil majors scaled back spending during and after the oil price crash, the Financial Times reports, citing people and investors familiar with the plans.

The Carlyle Group will be looking to invest in companies outside the United States in the energy supply chain, in exploration and production assets, refining and marketing, and oilfield services.

Carlyle co-chief executive Glenn Youngkin and the soon-to-be chairman of energy, natural resources, and infrastructure, Marcel van Poecke, met with investors on Tuesday, two people present at the meeting told the FT.

“From an investor’s point of view, I think this is an interesting market to invest in,” van Poecke told the FT in a recent interview, commenting on the opportunities in oil and gas.

The new fund would be a follow-up to the Carlyle International Energy Partners (CIEP) that raised US$2.5 billion when it was launched in 2013.

The goal of the CIEP fund was to make global opportunistic investments in oil and gas outside of North America, with primary investment focus on oil and gas exploration and production (E&P), midstream and downstream, refining and marketing (R&M), and oil field services (OFS).

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According to FT’s sources, the new fund that Carlyle is readying will make similar investments.

One of the CIEP fund’s high-profile investments was in the UK-based firm Neptune that struck a deal in May 2017 to buy the North Sea gas assets of France’s Engie along with other operations for US$3.9 billion. Neptune, ran by the former chief executive of British utility Centrica Sam Laidlaw, was given US$5 billion by Carlyle Group and CVC Capital Partners back when it was set up in 2015.

Another Carlyle-backed firm—Assala Energy—completed in November 2017 the acquisition of Shell’s onshore assets in Gabon, for a total of US$628 million, including an amount equivalent to interest. Assala Energy was created by Carlyle as a new oil and gas exploration and production company to focus on energy opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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