Last year, Blackstone has formed Clarion Offshore Partners LLC, a new platform to provide strategic solutions to the offshore oil and gas drilling and services sector (article below)...
Blackstone has also struck African oil pipeline deal in September 2016 (article below)...
>>>>>>>>>>. Blackstone Forms Partnership for Offshore Oil & Gas Drilling Services
New York and Houston, February 11, 2016. Blackstone (NYSE:BX) today announced that it has formed Clarion Offshore Partners LLC (“Clarion”), a new platform to provide strategic solutions to the offshore oil and gas drilling and services sector, with a financial commitment from private equity funds managed by Blackstone.
Clarion’s investment mandate is broad and flexible, enabling the partnership to pursue opportunities with a wide array of industry participants, including offshore drilling companies, shipyards, financial institutions, investors, and oil & gas operators. The partnership will provide creative financing solutions including growth and restructuring capital to the sector.
The Clarion team is led by senior executives with extensive experience in the offshore drilling services sector who have operated in virtually every offshore basin in the world. Clarion’s Chairman Louis Raspino, together with partners Greg Looser, Kevin Robert, and Ron Toufeeq, were the majority of the executive management team at Pride International. Under the leadership of Mr. Raspino as Chief Executive Officer, with Mr. Toufeeq as Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Robert as Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Business Development, and Mr. Looser as Chief Administrative Officer and General Counsel, Pride International restructured its balance sheet, rebuilt its worldwide management team and infrastructure, and executed asset rationalizations. These efforts established Pride as a leading international offshore drilling company with a heavy emphasis on investment in deepwater growth.
Louis Raspino said, “This is an opportune time in the industry for a well-capitalized and experienced team to provide creative financing and operational solutions. Balance sheets are under severe pressure, existing operators are challenged to deploy assets, and related parties throughout the value chain are also facing financial pressures. We believe Clarion can be a partner of choice to the industry and we are excited about partnering with Blackstone.”
Michael Ryder, a Senior Managing Director with Blackstone Energy Partners, said, “We are very pleased to form this partnership with Clarion, which brings together our global energy investing experience and a best in class management team. Louis and the team are uniquely positioned to contribute deep strategic and operational expertise, having successfully led Pride and other organizations. We look forward to working with Clarion and other industry participants in the coming years.”
About Blackstone Energy Partners and Blackstone
Blackstone Energy Partners is Blackstone's energy-focused private equity business, with a successful record built on Blackstone's industry expertise and partnerships with exceptional management teams. Blackstone has invested over $8 billion of equity globally across a broad range of sectors within the energy industry.
Blackstone is one of the world’s leading investment firms. We seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our investors, the companies we invest in, and the communities in which we work. We do this by using extraordinary people and flexible capital to help companies solve problems. Our asset management businesses, with over $330 billion in assets under management, include investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public debt and equity, non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all on a global basis. Blackstone also provides various financial advisory services, including financial and strategic advisory, restructuring and reorganization advisory and fund placement services. Further information is available at www.blackstone.com. Follow Blackstone on Twitter @Blackstone.
About Clarion Offshore Partners
Clarion Offshore Partners is a global investment platform that provides strategic solutions to the offshore oil & gas drilling industry. With a broad and flexible mandate, Clarion seeks to provide creative solutions to a wide spectrum of industry participants including, offshore drilling companies, shipyards, financial institutions, entrepreneurs, and oil and gas operators. Clarion is a partnership between Blackstone and former senior executives of Pride International. Further information is available at www.clarionoffshore.com.
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Blackstone-backed group strikes African oil pipeline deal
Black Rhino agrees its first $300m investment in pipeline between Ethiopia and Djibouti
Black Rhino, the African infrastructure investor owned by US private equity group Blackstone, has made its first $300m investment in a strategically important fuel pipeline between Ethiopia and Djibouti. Sample the FT’s top stories for a week You select the topic, we deliver the news. Select topic Enter email addressInvalid email Sign up By signing up you confirm that you have read and agree to the terms and conditions, cookie policy and privacy policy. The deal, which is one of the most high-profile US investments in the region, is the first phase of the planned $1.6bn Horn of Africa pipeline, agreed by the governments of Ethiopia and Djibouti last year. The investment was announced on the eve of the annual US-Africa business forum in New York. The 340-mile long project will transport diesel, petrol and other products from facilities in the Arabian Sea port of Djibouti City to central Ethiopia, one of east Africa’s fastest-growing economies, which currently relies on trucks for its fuel supplies. “In Djibouti and Ethiopia, the growth of fuel demand has rocketed, as across east Africa,” said Brian Herlihy, Black Rhino’s founder and chief executive. “It is a major energy security issue.” The project is likely to be closely watched given the changing geopolitical balance in the region. Djibouti has become a military hub for several governments in recent years, including hosting China’s first ever overseas naval base. The pipeline will also pass through Ethiopia’s Oromia region, where protests have recently erupted against the government. Ethiopia and Djibouti are seen to have picked a US partner for the pipeline in part to lessen their reliance on China for key infrastructure. Chinese state-owned companies are building a railway between the two countries that is due to open next year. “You’re also starting to see countries reaching certain debt levels reminding them that they can’t take these projects on all by themselves,” Mr Herlihy said. “The reality is that this is the lowest-cost solution out there,” he said, adding that the pipeline concession had a “very transparent, long-term structure”. Funding for the project will be drawn from equity from Blackstone funds and debt raised from institutional investors. The pipeline will also be one of the few projects supplying fuel to Africa’s interior not to be constructed with the involvement of a commodity trading house. Black Rhino is also announcing a $300m investment in a Senegalese fuel power project at the US-Africa forum. Organised by the US department of commerce and Bloomberg Philanthropies, founded by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, the forum is intended to bring together African governments with US companies. The forum will be one of the legacies of the administration of President Barack Obama as he prepares to leave office, as well as the Power Africa initiative to develop generation capacity on the continent. Caterpillar, the US construction equipment manufacturer, will also announce at the forum a $1bn investment in staff training and rebuild facilities in African markets over the next five years. Penny Pritzker, the US commerce secretary, denied that US government efforts to increase American corporate involvement in the region were in competition with Chinese government investments. “Ours is an American approach, and we’ll leave other countries’ models to other countries,” she added.
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FAR Price at posting:
8.1¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
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