Oil and Gas Private Equity

Can someone please elaborate on careers at a PE firm working in oil and gas sectors ?? typical projects ?? hows the work ?? im eager to work at a PE firm preferably in oil n gas sector.

33 Comments
 

HS,

currently m working as an engineer in an O&G exploration firm ....can u pl. help me figure out a way to get onto PE track in the industry.

cheers

 
Best Response

It'll be tough. PE is difficult to get into already; trying to go to a sector specific fund is even harder. The issue is, as an engineer, you really lack the necessary skills of evaluating deals (i.e. all the modeling skills of an ex-banking analyst and familiarity with debt structures, etc.). I would say you'd have a better shot of going to b-school first and maybe heading towards corporate finance. PE shops will value your technical knowledge of O&G but as a junior person, it won't help much.

That being said, these firms have a bunch of portfolio companies that have management teams who are tasked with figuring out where to invest/buy/develop. Maybe you could get into one of those..

 

i have just started my career working at the engineering firm for the time being ....and looking for an MBA from tier1 b-school in India.I'm quite fascinated by the PE work and compensation ...knowing reaching there isn't easy ..i'm trying to get into a market research firm (only available option) ..hope that helps.

btw Is it difficult for engineers to reach that profile(PE)....or its coz my work current work ex is irrelevant to them ...which is the bigger concern??

 
tigerwoods711i have just started my career working at the engineering firm for the time being ....and looking for an MBA from tier1 b-school in India.I'm quite fascinated by the PE work and compensation ...knowing reaching there isn't easy ..i'm trying to get into a market research firm (only available option) ..hope that helps.

btw Is it difficult for engineers to reach that profile(PE)....or its coz my work current work ex is irrelevant to them ...which is the bigger concern??

No offense, but your english is the bigger concern. Fascinated by the PE compensation?! I'd drop that line if you are poking around talking to PE guys, EVERYONE is "fascinated" by PE compensation and would like that make that kind of money....

 

HS:

"That being said, these firms have a bunch of portfolio companies that have management teams who are tasked with figuring out where to invest/buy/develop. Maybe you could get into one of those.."

Please elaborate a bit on this ...i really appreciate your effort..pls help.

 

I agree with Serendipity, much more feasible is to come in as an operations-side associate and try to get in with the deal team. One sponsor that has a great internal asset management team is ArcLight, which calls their internal consultants/operatiors "CAMS" and I believe provides services to companies that are not ArcLight portfolio companies as well.

I also agree with Mistabrooks, I know people treat forums less formally than they do other situations but people will help you more if your posts are more legible.

There have been many great comebacks throughout history. Jesus was dead but then came back as an all-powerful God-Zombie.
 

One thing I've noticed about the industry in Houston is that many firms tend to adopt a roll-up strategy more than I've seen in other PE (this could just be my personal experience with the oilfield services part of the industry). O&G is an extremely broad term and you'll see that strategies will be very different between Offshore, Oilfield Services, Corporate Venture platforms, Midstream, Downstream, and Commercial.

 

Ares does some energy (I think their Dallas office handles a lot of their energy investing though), TPG does energy (I believe most of the team is in NYC though), KKR's infrastructure group is in Menlo Park (they do quite a bit of midstream stuff if that's your thing), ECP has a San Diego office (believe it's a lot of renewables, but not sure). Oaktree does some energy, but don't know a lot about them. Beyond that, not a lot that I can think of

 

First Reserve, AIG Highstar, Riverstone (Carlyle), Lime Rock, Natural Gas Partners (NGP), ArcLight, Quantum Energy, Avista and maybe HM Capital and Kayne Anderson are the most well known funds that focus on specifically on energy. Some of the megafunds also have an energy group (KKR, Warburg, GSO come to mind), but they obviously do not specialize

Quintana, SCF, EIF, Sterling, Encap, Denham capital, American infrastructure MLP, Energy Spectrum are a couple of others

Not too sure about hedge funds other than Centaurus, of course.

Hope this helps

 

Yo, posting more threads is not going to endear people to your cause. You gotta just relax and wait.

That said, there may be a couple people on the site in O&G Private Equity... however I can tell you there are a couple divisions. Firstly, some funds work in traditional PE space (Riverstone, Limerock, Natural Gas Partners etc.) within that sector and some function exclusively in the function in the purchase of infrastructure assets [down/mid/upstream] (Highstar Capital etc), and some (only megafund First Reserve comes to mind) invest in both. Most of those firms, even FR in a way are very small; almost all the employees came from top Energy/O&G groups in Houston/NY, and the compensation as such has a very high upside.

I'm sure you're eager to work in O&G PE, but what are your stats? Are you a banker at Barclays/GS/JPM/Citi in Oil and Gas of Global Energy? You have some important questions to ask yourself my friend.

Cheers, IG

‎"Until and unless you discover that money is the root of all good, you ask for your own destruction. When money ceases to become the means by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of other men. Blood, whips and guns or dollars."
 

Similique aperiam quasi in dolor. Et aspernatur enim incidunt tempore illum error ut. Voluptates libero aliquid earum velit quia sunt consectetur. Ea dignissimos dicta voluptatem accusantium quidem eos amet.

Et laboriosam ut alias pariatur. Excepturi delectus pariatur quia. Quo sunt sunt consequatur atque et et. Libero alias cumque expedita sint.

Cupiditate aut aut labore mollitia odio explicabo consectetur. Hic id odit qui voluptas at inventore molestias. Sed quaerat quisquam omnis eaque. Quos vitae sunt facere vero omnis sit. Amet aliquam ipsum aut ex.

At quae et aspernatur dolores doloremque. Accusantium est reiciendis optio incidunt est. Voluptatum officiis velit et reiciendis sequi libero odio. Voluptatem adipisci eius eaque saepe sapiente deleniti. Quis doloribus nemo possimus facere dolores. Quo consectetur qui expedita adipisci.

[quote=patternfinder]Of course, I would just buy in scales. [/quote] See my WSO Blog | my AMA
 

Et mollitia non itaque ut eveniet voluptates. Odio itaque sunt quia ex. Vel qui ab sunt aut sit. Est id odit quisquam repudiandae aut ullam.

Nesciunt sed hic asperiores omnis enim quasi tempore. Numquam est expedita voluptates consequatur vel aliquid.

Ut vero ex et qui. Qui vero ea et quisquam suscipit quia. Sint totam dolorem nam earum sed quasi sunt eaque. Laboriosam aperiam ut quia unde esse. Quia facilis qui temporibus tempora et.

Career Advancement Opportunities

June 2026 Private Equity

  • The Riverside Company 99.6%
  • Blackstone Group 99.2%
  • KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) 98.9%
  • Warburg Pincus 98.5%
  • Bain Capital 98.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

June 2026 Private Equity

  • Blackstone Group 99.6%
  • KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) 99.2%
  • The Riverside Company 98.9%
  • Ardian 98.5%
  • Starwood Capital Group 98.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

June 2026 Private Equity

  • Bain Capital 99.6%
  • The Riverside Company 99.2%
  • Blackstone Group 98.9%
  • Starwood Capital Group 98.5%
  • KKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) 98.1%

Total Avg Compensation

June 2026 Private Equity

  • Principal (9) $653
  • Director/MD (24) $547
  • Vice President (98) $365
  • 3rd+ Year Associate (104) $281
  • 2nd Year Associate (235) $272
  • 1st Year Associate (411) $229
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (33) $157
  • 2nd Year Analyst (97) $134
  • 1st Year Analyst (272) $124
  • Intern/Summer Associate (38) $81
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (355) $62
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
4
kanon's picture
kanon
99.0
5
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
6
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
7
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
8
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
98.9
9
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
10
Jamoldo's picture
Jamoldo
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”