Asset management and financial services firm Blackstone (NYSE: BX) has formed a partnership with major oil exploration company LLOG, the companies announced this week. The companies have formed a long-term partnership and committed to invest more than $1.2 billion to expand LLOG's offshore operations in the Gulf of Mexico, along with building up LLOG's assets in the area. The companies tout the partnership as "the largest private equity financing executed in the Gulf of Mexico to date."
"We evaluate many potential investments in the energy sector but choose only a small number each year to pursue that we believe represent a combination of the most exceptional management teams with unique and large-scale opportunities to create value; LLOG is a great example of this," Blackstone Energy Partners CEO David Foley said in the press release.
Louisiana-based LLOG will work with Blackstone to develop four recent deepwater discoveries.
Blackstone's venture is one of several moves by private equity into Gulf energy exploration. In a large recent deal, Warburg Pincus LLC pledged, along with other partners, $1.13 billion to expand the reach of Venari Resources LLC.
