Energy Capital Group (ECG), a private global investment firm, has made a strategic investment of $60 million in US-based NEOS GeoSolutions, a provider of exploration solutions in the onshore oil and gas and mining industries.

The investment was made jointly alongside Microsoft chairman Bill Gates. ECG and Bill Gates join an existing group of blue chip investors in NEOS including Goldman Sachs, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Passport Capital.

With this investment, Ali Abdulaziz AlTurki, founding partner and CEO of ECG, has joined the board of NEOS, where he and ECG will work closely with the company and its management to meet and maximise NEOS’ potential.

This includes supporting efforts to further develop the company’s technologies and services, delivery capacity to clients worldwide and general corporate growth initiatives, including expansion and the development of opportunities in the Mena region.

“We are delighted to announce our investment in NEOS alongside Bill Gates and the company’s existing roster of high quality investors who, like us, believe that NEOS’ technology can transform natural resource exploration as we know it,” said AlTurki.

“ECG is committed to investing in services companies and technologies that support the further development of the energy sector and we are confident that the services NEOS provides will become the standard for world-class companies seeking to identify hydrocarbons and minerals in the subsurface of the earth in an effective and efficient way in order to maximise output and returns.”

“We are working closely with NEOS in the further development and commercialization of its services around the world and will utilise our resources, network and unmatched experience of the regional energy services sector to support the company’s further growth and progress,” he added.

ECG has a strong pipeline of investments and continues plans to conclude additional investments in companies operating in the global energy services sector. To date, it has completed over $100 million of investments in international and Middle East energy services companies targeting investments in small to medium sized companies that are well managed and have strong performance and growth potential.

Of particular interest to ECG are global companies currently generating a small percentage of their total revenue from the Middle East but which have strong near-term opportunities to significantly grow their revenue base in the region and GCC markets in particular, where a potentially large and lucrative pool of contracts are available.

Based on strong interest and market demand for participation in transactions already undertaken by ECG and future investments, ECG has established a $300 million investment vehicle, currently open to regional and international investors.

This will enable the investors to gain exposure to oil services companies that are set to continue to benefit from the ongoing growth in global energy demand and the resulting need for significantly raised levels of production and added capacity, much of which will come from the Middle East region, a statement said.

ECG’s shareholders, comprised of Rawabi Holding Company, ATCO, Al Muhaidib Group and Al-Ansari Holding Company, are among the Middle East’s largest energy services and industrial investment groups.

Established in 2006, NEOS has assembled a world-class team of engineers and geoscientists and has already invested approximately $100 million to develop a proprietary technology, NeoSphere, capable of helping natural resources companies better understand and plan where to explore, lease and drill.

Houston-based NEOS expects that its technologies can help to revolutionize natural resource exploration, the statement said. – TradeArabia News Service