The Carlyle Group Launches Boru Energy With Oil Industry Veterans Aidan Heavey and Tom Hickey
Boru Energy will target acquisitions of up to $1 billion, focussing on oil and gas opportunities across Sub-Saharan Africa
LONDON – Global investment firm, The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG), announced today that it has agreed to partner with Aidan Heavey and Tom Hickey, through Boru Energy, a new platform that will target acquisitions of oil & gas assets across Sub-Saharan Africa. Aidan Heavey and Tom Hickey are well-regarded industry veterans with extensive investment experience investing in African oil & gas assets.
Boru Energy’s investment goal will be to assemble a portfolio of primarily non-operated interests in oil & gas production assets. The potential portfolio will be spread across several Sub-Saharan Africa countries and will consist of assets with significant commercialisation potential and where the operator is a high quality national, international or independent oil and gas company.
Funding for potential investments will come from Carlyle International Energy Partners, L.P. (CIEP), a fund that focuses on oil and gas exploration & production, midstream, and refining and marketing in Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia. CIEP first invested in Africa in 2017, when Carlyle-backed Assala Energy acquired Shell’s onshore assets in Gabon. Boru Energy will benefit from the strong experience and industry expertise Carlyle has in this region and globally. This investment is led by Managing Director and Head of CIEP Marcel van Poecke and Managing Director Bob Maguire.
Aidan Heavey is the founder and former Chairman and CEO of Tullow Oil PLC, an Africa-focused exploration and production company listed on the London Stock Exchange. Under Heavey’s leadership, Tullow grew into a FTSE 100 company with production of over 80,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Tom Hickey was CFO of Tullow Oil between 2000 and 2008, where he worked closely with Mr Heavey, and has since held various management positions in the oil & gas industry.
Marcel van Poecke, Managing Director, and Head of the CIEP team, said: “Carlyle are pleased to partner with Aidan Heavey and Tom Hickey, both of whom have proven track records of successfully growing significant energy investments. We look forward to providing them with support and capabilities in order to help Boru Energy as it builds a successful platform for investing in oil & gas opportunities across Sub-Saharan Africa.”
Aidan Heavey commented: “Boru Energy will build on our team’s experience and commitment to investing in Africa. We will seek to invest to secure and increase production levels, extend field life cycles and support partners and governments to achieve long term, sustainable growth and create value. We are committed to achieving best-in-class safety, environmental, social performance and transparent stakeholder partnerships. We look forward to working with Carlyle, future industry partners and our team on this exciting opportunity.”