Carlyle Group to sell its Romanian Black Sea offshore natural gas producer

BUCHAREST, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Private equity firm Carlyle Group and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will sell their Romanian offshore natural gas producer Black Sea Oil & Gas (BSOG) to Mazarine Energy, BSOG said on Thursday.

The planned sale passes control of a producer that supplies about 10% of Romania's gas needs to a former Carlyle portfolio company.

The firms did not disclose the sale price. EBRD, which owns 10% of BSOG, also declined to give further details on the sale.   

BSOG launched Romania's first offshore Black Sea gas project in three decades in 2022, months after Russia invaded neighbouring Ukraine during a critical period in European energy markets.

Unlike other European states, Romania did not rely on Russian gas, producing most of its needs domestically through OMV Petrom, state-owned Romgaz and BSOG.

"Carlyle's investment in BSOG ... together with the EBRD's support and the transition of ownership to Mazarine reflects continued international investor confidence in Romania’s energy sector and its ability to attract long-term international capital into strategically important energy assets," BSOG said.

The sale is pending regulatory approval. 

Carlyle founded BSOG in 2015 and brought in the EBRD with a minority stake two years later. Mazarine Energy operates oil and gas assets in Tunisia, Romania and the Netherlands.

Asked about Carlyle's view on future deals, Bob Maguire, co-head of Carlyle International Energy Partners told Reuters: "We (at CIEP) have the flexibility of looking at both sides of the industry: upstream and downstream. And that continues."

On Monday, Spain's Moeve — part-owned by Carlyle — and Portugal's Galp Energia called off a potential merger of refining and other downstream assets this week as the US-Iran war turns refineries around the world from struggling businesses into prized assets.

OFFSHORE GAS PROJECT IN BLACK SEA

OMV Petrom and Romgaz are building offshore gas project Neptun Deep in the Black Sea, which they and the Romanian government expect to start producing in 2027 and to make the country the largest gas producer in the European Union and a net exporter.

The EU and NATO state shares a 614-km (382-mile) land border with Ukraine and has repeatedly reported Russian drone incursions into its airspace since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as well as mines floating in the Black Sea across key trade and energy routes.

Romanian fighter jets have destroyed marine drones floating near Neptun Deep this year. 

(Reporting by Luiza Ilie and Shadia Nasralla in London; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)