Riverstone Holdings to invest up to $100 mllion in Carrier Energy Partners

Riverstone Holdings LLC has committed to invest up to $100 million in Carrier Energy Partners II, LLC. With offices in Sugar Land, Texas, Carrier II is focused on the acquisition and exploitation of upstream oil and gas assets. Its primary objective is to partner with select operators that are developing both unconventional and conventional reservoirs in North America. The Riverstone commitment comprises $67 million from Riverstone Global Energy and Power Fund VI and $33 million from Riverstone Energy Limited.

Riverstone and Carrier II Management previously formed Carrier Energy Partners, LLC ("Carrier I") in August 2013 to pursue the same strategy. Since then Carrier has participated in two joint ventures targeting development of oil and gas assets in the Delaware Basin and in a legacy conventional field located in South Texas. The additional Riverstone commitment comes at a time when demand for non-operating partner capital has increased. Carrier II can provide solutions for upstream oil and gas companies that have experienced significantly reduced cash flows and capital availability as a result of the industry's energy price contraction.

Carrier II is led by its President and CEO, Mark Clemans, a professional engineer with over 25 years of experience in technical and financial evaluations through previous roles in operations, consulting, and investment banking at top tier oil and gas and financial services firms. In 2009, Mr. Clemans founded Carrier Petroleum, a company that assembled and managed a large portfolio of non-operated assets across several U.S. basins and plays to serve as a strategic investment for a Fortune 200 company.

Mr. Clemans commented, "It is a privilege for us to continue our non-operated platform in oil and gas with Riverstone, who has been an invaluable investment partner for us throughout Carrier I. Carrier's expertise lies in sound technical and financial evaluations of investment opportunities. We look forward to continuing to be a reliable partner for operators focused on asset development and value creation in resource plays and other capital intensive basins."

Carrier's management team also includes Christina Chen as Vice President and CFO and Aaron Shimek as Engineering Manager. Ms. Chen has significant financial experience in corporate finance and principal investing, with a focus on upstream assets. Ms. Chen previously held the position of Vice President of Finance for Carrier Petroleum, where she played key roles in acquisition evaluations and diligence, along with portfolio management, financial reporting, and risk management. Mr. Shimek was most recently a Senior Reservoir Engineer at Quantum Resources Management, primarily focused on managing the company's interest in the Mid-Continent and Ark-La-Tex regions. He has spent time at Fairways Exploration and Production and at W&T Offshore. He started his career at Devon Energy, working in various capacities as a reservoir, drilling and production engineer.

Robert Tichio, Partner at Riverstone, said, "We have been highly impressed by Mark, Christina, and Aaron through our experience at Carrier I. We are excited to grow our relationship with the Carrier team as we execute on this non-operated oil and gas acquisition approach in today's environment. Carrier and Riverstone continue to observe an increasing need for non-operating working interest partners created by the significant capital requirements inherent to full-scale development of unconventional resources."