Private Equity Circles Big Oil’s Pipelines as Majors Hunt for Cash

• Private equity giants are increasingly buying stakes in oil and gas infrastructure.
• Investors see pipeline and storage assets as high-return, long-life opportunities, offering majors billions in upfront cash while allowing them to retain operational control.
• The trend is accelerating across the Gulf and beyond, with blockbuster deals from ADNOC, Aramco, and Bahrain’s Bapco Energies now echoed in BP and Shell transactions.

The world’s biggest private equity groups are investing in infrastructure assets of the national oil companies of the Middle East as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) opened their pipeline networks to foreign capital.

Private equity giants are now seeking a slice of the infrastructure assets of the international majors in deals that would give Big Oil funds to reinvest in oil and gas production. These days, amid lower oil prices and continued reluctance of public-market investors despite the dramatic shift in the ESG narrative, private equity money could be an opportunity for the top Western majors to raise cash by selling parts of their pipeline and storage assets.

The infrastructure deals in the oil and gas sector began from the Middle East, but these could spread to the international majors, which need capital to sustain dividends and buybacks at $60 oil and have enough to invest in boosting oil and gas production.

Investors Eye Big Oil’s Infrastructure Assets

Investors have recently urged top executives from ExxonMobil, BP, TotalEnergies, and Eni to consider selling stakes in pipeline and storage assets to private equity groups in what would be a new way for Big Oil to monetize their infrastructure assets and one that doesn’t involve equity-market investors.

Ahead of ADIPEC, one of the energy industry’s top gatherings, private equity teams sat down at a closed-door meeting with Exxon, BP, TotalEnergies, and Eni and told their executives that they could offload more of their infrastructure assets, the Financial Times reports.

“You guys need to rethink how you think about capital,” one participant at the meeting told the majors, the FT says.

Right now, private equity giants are more inclined to invest in Big Oil than the equity markets that are “not as receptive” to the oil and gas industry, the participant told FT.

The world’s biggest private equity groups are investing in infrastructure assets of the national oil companies of the Middle East as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) opened their pipeline networks to foreign capital.

Private equity giants are now seeking a slice of the infrastructure assets of the international majors in deals that would give Big Oil funds to reinvest in oil and gas production. These days, amid lower oil prices and continued reluctance of public-market investors despite the dramatic shift in the ESG narrative, private equity money could be an opportunity for the top Western majors to raise cash by selling parts of their pipeline and storage assets.

The infrastructure deals in the oil and gas sector began from the Middle East, but these could spread to the international majors, which need capital to sustain dividends and buybacks at $60 oil and have enough to invest in boosting oil and gas production.

Investors Eye Big Oil’s Infrastructure Assets

Investors have recently urged top executives from ExxonMobil, BP, TotalEnergies, and Eni to consider selling stakes in pipeline and storage assets to private equity groups in what would be a new way for Big Oil to monetize their infrastructure assets and one that doesn’t involve equity-market investors.

Ahead of ADIPEC, one of the energy industry’s top gatherings, private equity teams sat down at a closed-door meeting with Exxon, BP, TotalEnergies, and Eni and told their executives that they could offload more of their infrastructure assets, the Financial Times reports.

“You guys need to rethink how you think about capital,” one participant at the meeting told the majors, the FT says.

Right now, private equity giants are more inclined to invest in Big Oil than the equity markets that are “not as receptive” to the oil and gas industry, the participant told FT.