Shell, Blackstone in Joint Bid for BHP's Shale Assets
Royal Dutch Shell Plc and American private equity firm Blackstone Group LP are working on a joint bid for BHP Billiton Plc's U.S. shale assets for $10 billion, Sky News reported. The shale auction is expected to lead to a deal later this year, Sky News said. BHP had put up the U.S. shale assets for sale last year. BHP declined to comment. Shell and Blackstone could not be immediately reached for comment. Reporting by Sangameswaran S
Brazil's Patria Investimentos Targets Natural Gas, Renewables
Brazilian investment firm Pátria Investimentos Ltda is targeting infrastructure investments in natural gas and renewable energy, partner Otávio Castello Branco told journalists on Wednesday. A fund managed by the investment firm was awarded in March via an auction the right to operate several highways in São Paulo, Brazil's richest state. In April, Pátria also won rights to build and operate power transmission lines. Patria, which has a partnership with U.S. Blackstone Group LP since 2010, will now look for investments in energy, specifically related to natural gas and renewable energy, Castello Branco said. Reuters reported on Oct.
Blackstone to Buy EagleClaw Midstream
EagleClaw Midstream Ventures LLC, the largest privately held operator of pipelines and processing facilities in West Texas' Delaware Basin, said it agreed to be bought by funds managed by Blackstone Group LP for about $2 billion. Private-equity funds, including Blackstone, Carlyle Group , and CVC Partners, have built up significant firepower in recent years to invest in the oil and gas industry, where asset prices have dipped sharply since crude oil prices collapsed mid-2014. Blackstone said in August it would invest about $1.5 billion in the oil-rich Permian basin.
Blackstone to buy EagleClaw Midstream
EagleClaw Midstream Ventures LLC said on Monday it agreed to be bought by funds managed by Blackstone Group LP for about $2 billion. EagleClaw Midstream Ventures LLC, which owns and operates natural gas pipelines and processing facilities, said the all-cash deal includes about $1.25 billion in debt, financed by Jefferies LLC. EagleClaw is the largest privately held midstream operator in the Permian's Delaware Basin in West Texas. Reporting by Arathy S Nair
Blackstone Mulls Stake in ETP Assets
Private-equity firm Blackstone Group LP is in talks to buy a stake in assets owned by Energy Transfer Partners LP, the company building the controversial Dakota Access pipeline, a source familiar with the situation said on Thursday. Blackstone is discussing joining the deal with Jamie Welch, who previously served as chief financial officer of ETP parent Energy Transfer Equity LP. The deal is expected to be valued at about $5 billion or more, the Wall Street Journal, who first reported the proposed deals, said earlier on Thursday. Blackstone declined to comment while Energy Transfer Partners did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
U.S. Shale Back in Business, Buoyed by OPEC, Trump
U.S. shale producers are redeploying cash, rigs and workers, cautiously confident the energy sector has turned a corner after Donald Trump's election victory and OPEC's recent signal that it plans to curb production. The downturn produced a leaner, more efficient U.S. shale industry that was forced to develop and quickly adapt new technology to compete with conventional oil supplies during a two-year period of depressed prices. "You're starting to see a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel," Ryan Lance, chief executive of ConocoPhillips , the largest independent U.S. oil producer, said in an interview last week.
Blackstone to Invest $1.5 Bln in Permian Basin
Asset manager Blackstone Group LP will invest about $1.5 billion in the oil-rich Permian basin, in Texas and New Mexico. The company said it would partner with oil and gas company Jetta Operating Co Inc to create Jetta Permian, which will spend $1 billion on assets in the Delaware Basin, located in the larger Permian basin. Blackstone also said it would spend $500 million on future acquisitions, to be made through its recently formed oil and gas company, Guidon Energy. Guidon Energy bought about 22,000 gross acres in Texas in April (Reporting by Vishaka George; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta)
Private Equity Emerges as Last Resort Energy Lender
U.S. energy companies facing a likely cut in their bank loans are seeking a costly alternative - borrowing from private equity firms at hefty interest rates to stay alive for longer. In a sign of the times, U.S. oil and gas producer Clayton Williams Energy Inc said this month it was borrowing $350 million from private equity firm Ares Management LP to replace an equivalent loan from a group of banks. The loan from Ares is the first publicly-known deal of its kind, and does not come cheap. Ares will charge interest rates more than triple that collected by banks…
SunEdison Cuts Cash Portion of Vivint Solar Offer
Solar company SunEdison Inc said it cut the cash portion of its offer for Vivint Solar Inc by $2.00 to $7.89 per share. SunEdison's shares jumped 21.4 percent to $4.25 in early trading on Wednesday. The company said the stock component of the offer has been raised by 75 cents per share. SunEdison also said Blackstone Group LP had entered into a commitment to provide a $250 million credit facility. SunEdison said its yieldco, TerraForm Power Inc, will acquire Vivint Solar's then-installed rooftop solar portfolio for about $799 million based on the number of installed megawatts (MW) expected to be delivered at closing…
Blackstone Seeks Buyer for German Offshore Wind Farm
Alternative asset manager Blackstone Group LP is seeking a buyer for its Meerwind Sued/Ost offshore wind park in Germany, hoping to benefit from a surge in deal activity in the sector, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters. The 288 megawatt (MW) Meerwind Sued/Ost wind park, located 23 kilometres north of the German island of Heligoland, was completed last year and provides electricity for up to 360,000 households. The park could fetch more than 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion), based on per-MW multiples of recent deals that included EnBW's sale of a stake in offshore wind park Baltic 2 to Australia's Macquarie.
Creditor Sues Arch Coal's Lenders
A creditor of Arch Coal Inc has sued a group of lenders alleging they are trying to use the struggling U.S. miner's credit agreement to block its out-of-court restructuring efforts and push it into bankruptcy. GSO Special Situations Master Fund LP, which holds some of Arch Coal's unsecured notes, has sought a temporary restraining order against the lenders. Arch Coal's restructuring plan includes a private debt exchange offer to swap existing senior notes for longer term securities. The company had announced the exchange offer in July and had extended, multiple times, the deadline for completion, which is now Sept. 23.
Warburg Pincus Raises $4 billion Private Equity Fund for Energy
Warburg Pincus LLC said on Monday it had raised $4 billion for its first energy-focused private equity fund, exceeding its $3 billion target and making it the latest investment firm looking to tap into opportunities in North America's shale gas boom. Warburg Pincus joins peers such as Blackstone Group LP and Apollo Global Management LLC that already have dedicated investment funds for energy deals alongside their flagship, multi-sector private equity funds. At a time when prices for leveraged buyouts of companies remain expensive…
Oil Recovery Startup Gets Going with $700 mln Blackstone Investment
Windy Cove Energy LLC said it received a $700 million equity investment from Blackstone Group LP, funds the company will use to buy mature oilfields that it will flood with carbon dioxide to free trapped oil and gas. Even as U.S. oil and gas companies increasingly focus on vast shale fields, the high cost of developing new reserves is prompting many to use enhanced oil recovery methods that help extract more crude from existing wells. U.S. companies such as Denbury Resources Inc, Whiting Petroleum Corp and privately held Roosevelt Resources LP inject carbon dioxide (CO2) into wells to boost output.
Vivint Solar Shares Rise 9% in Debut
Shares of Vivint Solar Inc, the second-largest installer of residential solar panels in the United States, rose as much as 9 percent in their market debut on the New York Stock Exchange, valuing the company at about $1.84 billion. Vivint raised about $330 million after it sold all 20.6 million shares offered at $16 per share, the low end of the expected range of $16-$18. Blackstone Group LP, which owned 97 percent of Vivint before the IPO, did not sell any shares but its stake was diluted to 78.2 percent. The shares hit a high of $17.47 before slipping back to $16.60 about 10 minutes after the start of trade.
Shell Sells More US Gas Assets, Adds Acreage
Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday announced the sale of two onshore U.S. shale gas assets in exchange for $2.1 billion and acreage in different gas-rich areas as the energy company restructures its North America business and reins in costs. Shell agreed to sell to Ultra Petroleum its relatively mature natural gas-producing properties in Wyoming's Pinedale field, a total of 155,000 acres, in a step which will mark its complete exit from one of its first U.S. shale investments in 2001. Ultra will pay Shell $925 million in cash and give it acreage in the oil and gas-rich Marcellus and Utica fields in Pennsylvania and Ohio, respectively.
