Two ex-BP chief executives were reunited today as Lord Browne struck a $281 million (£169 million) deal with former protégé Tony Hayward to explore for oil off Angola.
Lord Browne’s White Rose Energy Ventures, staffed by a number of former BP executives, and Genel, Tony Hayward’s Nat Rothschild-backed oil company, have bought stakes in two exploration areas covering 14,000 square kilometres at depths of up to 2500 metres.
It is the first major deal for White Rose since it was formed by Browne through his Riverstone private equity investment group in 2011 and the first time the two men have worked together since Browne left BP.
White Rose’s team found the deal to buy exploration stakes from a Chinese-Angolan state joint venture and Statoil. Browne phoned Hayward, who succeeded him as chief executive, to discuss it.
Genel, best-known for its oil assets in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, has been diversifying its investments outside the country for some time.
