- Boru Energy to headed by Heavey and former Tullow colleague Tom Hickey and will target assets in Africa
London, UK | Former Tullow Oil senior executives Aidan Heavey and Tom Hickey have secured $1 billion (€920 million) in backing from US investment giant Carlyle for a new oil and gas venture in West Africa to be called Boru Energy.
The company will target acquisitions of “primarily non-operated interests” in oil and gas assets across several sub-Saharan African countries Irish Times reports.
Mr Heavey, who stepped down as chairman of Tullow – the exploration company he founded 33 years ago – in 2018, said Boru Energy aimed to assemble a portfolio of assets with significant commercialisation potential.
“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,” he said.
He will be partnered in his new venutre by long-time former Tullow colleague Tom Hickey, who was chief financial officer of the company between 2000 and 2008.
Under their stewardship, Tullow grew into a FTSE 100 company with production of more than 80,000 barrels of oil per day. It is widely acknowledged as Ireland’s most successful exploration company.
Tullow expanded in the 2000s through a series of acquisitions, the most high-profile of which was the acquisition of Energy Africa in 2004, which doubled the company’s size.
Funding for Boru Energy’s initial investments will come from Carlyle’s energy arm, Carlyle International Energy Partners (CIEP), which first invested in Africa in 2017 via the acquisition of Shell’s onshore assets in Gabon.
Carlyle said the new venture would benefit from the strong experience and industry expertise CIEP has in the region and globally.
CIEP managing director Marcel van Poecke said Carlyle was pleased to partner two individuals with proven track records “of successfully growing significant energy investments”.
