KKR Backs New European Oil and Gas Producer
23 September 2015 - 12:50AM
Dow Jones News
KKR & Co., the New York-based private-equity firm, said it
would back energy industry veteran Roland Wessel to create a new
European producer of onshore oil and gas in places with proven
reserves using enhanced oil recovery techniques such as horizontal
drilling.
KKR will potentially make more than €150 million ($169 million)
available to Mr. Wessel's Trans European Oil & Gas Ltd. to buy
oil and gas fields and companies, a person familiar with the
transaction said. Mr. Wessel previously founded Star Energy, an
owner of 25 oil and gas fields that was sold in 2008 to Malaysian
state oil company Petroliam Nasional Bhd., or Petronas.
KKR is among private-equity firms pursuing energy deals after
oil prices fell from highs of around $114 a barrel in 2014 to lows
of under $50 this year, making assets cheaper. In May, KKR invested
in Mexico's Monterra Energy. In June, Washington-based Carlyle
Group and London's CVC Capital Partners Ltd. teamed up to back Sam
Laidlaw, former Chief Executive of U.K. energy company Centrica
PLC, to lead Neptune Oil & Gas Ltd., which is focusing on
opportunities from the North Sea to North Africa and southeast
Asia.
"We hope to be able to pay realistic prices for assets given the
lower oil price. We made very good money with oil at $50 a barrel
at Star Energy," Mr. Wessel said in an interview. "Right now we are
looking at central and eastern Europe. We haven't got any specific
boundaries. We will look at the U.K., France and Germany."
New York-based Blackstone Group LP last year moved Mustafa
Siddiqui to London to lead the firm's energy activities in Europe,
the Middle East and Africa. Blackstone has since teamed with Blue
Water Energy to invest in Siccar Point Energy, a new North Sea oil
company.
In January, KKR hired Haroun van Hö vell as head of its energy
team in Europe, the Middle East and Africa as part of the firm's
expansion plans outside the U.S.
"We believe there is a significant opportunity to build a
portfolio of conventional onshore oil and gas properties in
Europe," Mr. van Hö vell said Tuesday.
Write to Simon Clark at simon.clark@wsj.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 22, 2015 10:35 ET (14:35 GMT)
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