Former BP bosses Hayward and Browne team up for Angola deal
TWO COMPANIES led by former BP chief executives have joined forces to buy stakes in oil assets located off Angola.
Genel Energy, headed up by Tony Hayward, and White Rose Energy Ventures, which is chaired by Lord Browne and backed by his investment firm Riverstone Holdings, will pay a total of $222m (£113.7m) to Norway’s Statoil and $59m to state-owned Sonangol, for a 15 per cent stake in two blocks in the Kwanza Basin.
Both blocks will continue to be operated by the majority stakeholder Statoil.
“This transaction provides a rare opportunity to enter into a low risk, multi-billion barrel resource play,” said Hayward.
According to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), Angola is the second largest oil producer in Africa, with current production at around 1.7m barrels per day. Genel’s shares closed 0.5 per cent lower yesterday at 977p.