Gabon to buy Carlyle Group’s Assala holding for $1.3 billion

Gabon Oil Company (GOC) has signed a share purchase agreement with the Carlyle Group to buy the private equity firm’s Assala Energy Holdings, worth USD 1.3 billion, S&P Global reported on Friday.

Assala is one of the biggest oil extraction facilities in Gabon. It operates six onshore production licences and has aggregate capacity of about 45,000 bopd. Facilities also include a pipeline network and the Gamba export terminal. It is a mature asset, and Carlyle is reported to have invested heavily to boost its production.

The transaction pre-empts an earlier deal struck in August 2023 between Carlyle and Maurel & Prom for USD 730 million, which included the roll-over of a USD 600-million debt facility. Carlyle had originally purchased the asset from Shell in 2017, spending around USD 1 billion.

Assala will be the first major oil project taken on by GOC. The company currently produces oil from the Mboumba field at a rate of about 1,000 bopd. Gabon’s aggregate output in January 2024 was 230,000 bopd, according to the Platts OPEC Survey.