By REUTERS: PUBLISHED: 10:08, 24 March 2017
By Ron Bousso
LONDON, March 24 (Reuters) – Carlyle Group has bought Royal Dutch Shell’s onshore assets in Gabon for $587 million as the world’s largest private equity fund expands in the global oil and gas sector.
For Shell, the deal marks a further step in a $30 billion asset disposal programme to help cut debt after its $54 billion acquisition of BG Group last year. The Anglo-Dutch oil company has sold assets for more than $15 billion since 2016.
Shell’s Gabon assets will be incorporated into Carlyle-backed Assala Energy, which is led by former Tullow Oil executive David Roux and will focus on energy opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa, Carlyle said in a statement on Friday.
The assets operated by Shell produce approximately 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, of which 40,000 boed go to the company. Under the deal, which is expected to close in the summer, Assala Energy will assume a debt of $285 million.
For Shell, the transaction will result in an impairment charge of $53 million after tax which will be taken in the first quarter of 2017, it said in a separate statement. About 430 local Shell employees will become part of Assala Energy.
The capital for the investment will come from Carlyle International Energy Partners (CIEP), a $2.5 billion fund that invests in global oil and gas exploration and production, and the $698 million Carlyle Sub-Saharan Africa Fund (SSA).
Private equity funds have increased their presence in oil exploration and production companies outside the United States since the collapse in oil prices in 2014, snapping up assets from oil companies seeking to reduce debt and narrow operations.
CIEP has invested $500 million in Mazarine Energy to make bolt-on acquisitions in southern Europe and North Africa.
It also set up, together with private equity fund CVC Partners, North Sea investment vehicle Neptune, headed by former Centrica boss Sam Laidlaw, which is expected to make an investment in the near future. (Reporting by Ron Bousso; editing by Alexander Smith)
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Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
