KNOC backs Apollo-led purchase of US oil assets
Korea National Oil Corp. (KNOC) will join a consortium led by Apollo Global Management that has agreed to buy US-based El Paso’s oil and gas exploration business for $7.15 billion. The assets are being sold by Kinder Morgan as part of its $21 billion acquisition of El Paso. It intends to retain the firm’s pipeline business.
Other participants in the consortium include Riverstone Holdings and Access Industries. KNOC expects the deal to close in the first half of 2012.
The Korean state energy developer said in December that it plans to spend $3-4 billion on foreign assets in 2012 as it seeks to boost daily output from its overseas oilfields by more than one third to 300,000 barrels per day. Last year KNOC and Samsung C&T purchased Parallel Petroleum, another US oil and gas company, from Apollo for $780 million. KNOC earlier acquired a stake in Anadarko Petroleum's Eagle Ford shale field in South Texas for $1.55 billion.
Other Korean energy companies are also looking at overseas acquisitions. In December, a private equity investment fund owned by Korea Development Bank (KDB) paid $200 million for the gas business of US-based Apache Corp, an oil and gas specialist. The fund was working in partnership with South Korea's top oil refiner, SK Energy.
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