New Carlyle entity to manage East Med gas projects

• Assets include Egyptian gas hub
• Israel’s Karish fields a priority
• Former BP CEO to head company

Carlyle, the Nasdaq-listed private equity company, is creating a new oil and gas company to manage recently-acquired assets in the Mediterranean hydrocarbons market.

The new as yet un-named entity will be led by former BP CEO Tony Hayward and will manage a portfolio of gas-weighted exploration and production assets in Italy, Egypt and Croatia, according to a company statement.

The assets, acquired last week from London-based energy business Energean for up to $945 million, of which $820 million is firm, include interests in Cassiopea, Italy’s largest gas field in terms of reserves, and Abu Qir, one of the largest gas producing hubs off Egypt.

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Carlyle said it expects to produce an equivalent of 47,000 barrels of oil per day from the fields.

Energean said it wants to focus on its core assets, the Karish and Karish North gas fields off Israel, its main production centre, and the Anchois field in Morocco. It will also look for opportunities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

• Lack of discoveries pushes up oil and gas exploration costs
• BP invests $1.5bn in gas projects in Egypt
• Israel ramps up gas output, looks to supply Europe

The company supplied up to 60 percent of Israel’s natural gas demand last year after the Israeli government temporarily shut down the Chevron-operated Tamar gas field following the October 7 attack from Gaza. 

Last March BP and the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company suspended a $2 billion offer to acquire a 50 percent stake in NewMed Energy, the largest shareholder of the Leviathan gas project off Israel.