Private Equity Energy Tracker

Terms of Use Agreement

By Firm

As of May 2024

Quantum Energy Partners

Warburg Pincus

Kayne Anderson

Encap/Encap Flatrock Midstream

Blackstone

Arclight

EIG

Note that some of these companies may be joint investments by more than one of the top private equity firms, so the same record may appear on more than one of these lists.

Energy Capital Partners

Apollo

Global Infrastructure Partners

Brookfield (Oaktree)

TPG

Blackrock (Private Equity)*

EQT

*Note: This analysis only includes Blackrock’s Private Equity arm, Blackrock Private Equity Partners, Inc. and is an estimate based on limited publicly available information. PECR’s scope does not include Blackrock’s much larger asset manager segment, which operates under a different legal framework with distinct characteristics and cannot be classified as private equity.As of 2023, Blackrock had over $179 billion in fossil fuel holdings in this business, the most of any major asset manager.

By Energy Type

Key Findings

  • As of May 2024, 21 of these private equity firms were invested in
    • at least 272 companies in the fossil fuel industry
    • 404 energy companies overall
  • 67% of these firms’ energy portfolio companies were fossil fuel companies; two firms, Quantum Energy Partners and Warburg Pincus,were at 90%
  • PE firms Encap (including Encap Flatrock Midstream,) Brookfield, The Carlyle Group owned the largest number of fossil fuel energy companies.
  • These private equity firms owned fossil fuel companies in at least 40 different countries
    • Canada
    • UAE
    • Mexico
    • India
    • Brazil
    • Rwanda
    • El Salvador
    • Philippines

Understanding the Database

In the past decade, major private equity firms that have promised to reduce their own climate impact have been quietly investing in fossil fuels, further propelling the climate crisis.[1]   For the first time, the Private Equity Climate Risks project has released a list of the energy holdings of 21 of the largest private equity firms in the world, compiling their energy deals in one, easy-to-access portal/database.

This new dataset allows investors, policymakers, regulators, researchers, journalists, and the general public to investigate and better understand the role the private equity industry is playing in the continued production and distribution of fossil fuels. Check the Ownership Verification Date to see when we last verified the private equity investor for the company.

The full dataset includes the name of the portfolio company, the parent company (if applicable), and the most recent private equity investors in that company as of May 2024. That third field features the private equity firms that were actually behind each of these energy companies. These names can all be used as leads to look into the business practices and environmental records of each of these companies. To see which portfolio companies each of the eight private equity firms) control, see above.

The dataset also features the last deal date (the last time there was a change of ownership or new infusion of investment from at least one of the most recent PE investors) as of the Verification date, which highlights just how recently and frequently these firms have invested in energy, and categorizes each company by its energy type (upstream energy sources; midstream distribution resources; downstream power generation sites; or renewables) and energy sector or source (e.g. oil, gas, coal, or renewable options).

Finally, the dataset includes preliminary information about geography: the headquarters (HQ) location of these energy companies, which span the globe, from Bahrain to Brazil, Mexico to India. Any data we’ve collected—for only a small subset of companies so far—on the specific countries or states of the assets the company owns also shows up here. If a country or state appears more than once in these latter two columns, that means there is more than one asset in that location.

If you have questions, leads, or comments about any of these companies or their status, please reach out to us. We’d love to hear from you!

More on Key Findings

All together, the 21 private equity firms in the dataset were invested in 272 fossil fuel-based companies, as of May 2024. These companies owned some of the largest fossil fuel assets in the world, such as Gen. James Gavin Power Plant in Ohio, one of the largest and top-emitting coal-fired power plants in the United States,[2] and the Colonial Pipeline, the United States’ largest refined products pipeline.[3]

With a wide range of holdings, from oil fields to coal-fired power plants to natural gas terminals these 21 firms control a significant share of our energy economy. Our data shows that all but three of these private equity firms— TPG, Blackrock, and EQT—fossil fuel companies make up a majority of each energy portfolio. Their decisions have major implications for our collective ability to move towards a clean energy future.

Encap and Brookfield emerged as the biggest owners of fossil fuel energy companies in the list, with 34 and 29  companies, respectively. Rounding out the top five, the Carlyle Group held 24 fossil fuel companies, EIG held 22, and KKR held 19, as of May 2024.

The geographic concentration of the holdings also reveals a reliance on the old fossil fuel economy. As of May 2024, 103 of the 404 portfolio companies, or over one quarter, were headquartered in Texas, a bastion of the oil and gas industry. The next most frequent headquarters location was Colorado, where 17 companies were located. Overall, these 21 private equity firms owned fossil fuel companies in at least 40 different countries.

Private Equity and the Climate Crisis

Since 2010, private equity firms have invested over one trillion dollars in energy projects and are now under scrutiny for the environmental and climate impact of their investments,[4] which face less regulatory oversight than those of other financial actors, like big banks.

The adverse effects of climate change and environmental degradation, such as more frequent and more extreme droughts, prolonged heat waves, flooding, wildfires, long-term health impacts,[5] and large-scale displacement of people,[6] are already here.[7] To curtail the impacts of unabated greenhouse gas emissions, limit average global temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees Celsius,[8] and reduce air and water pollution, it is imperative to cut the financing flows that enable the extraction, transport, use of, and dependence on fossil fuels. The investment practices of private equity firms must be shifted for these efforts to succeed.

The Private Equity Model Creates An Accountability Vacuum for Community and Climate Harms

Private equity firms are investment companies that raise money from wealthy individuals and institutional investors—such as pension funds or university endowments—to create funds with which private equity firms purchase companies, real estate, natural resources, and other assets.[9] Funds have a typical life span of seven to 10 years. During the first three to five years, the fund makes investments and during the balance, the investments are realized and returns are distributed to investors.[10]

Usually, these investments are accompanied by taking over board seats or management positions in the target portfolio company and running the firm. That’s why the PECR tallied every energy company in which a named private equity firm has made an investment—in this context, private equity firms are not passive investors.

Financially, private equity firms seek to rapidly extract profits out of these new acquisitions before selling them or taking them public.[11] Typically, private equity firms use large amounts of borrowed money to acquire a target company. The debt is then added on to the target company’s balance sheet and the private equity owners often impose a combination of extensive cost cuts, expensive fees, and excessive risk-taking to be able to service the debt while still aiming to generate profit over the course of their holding period,[12] typically five years.[13] Companies can end up bankrupt after a private equity firm has exited the investment.[14]

The industry’s lack of financial accountability is enabled by regulatory loopholes that allow private equity firms to bypass most disclosure requirements and to legally implement complex corporate structures that largely eliminate their liability for portfolio companies’ negligence, malpractice or even government fines and fees.[15]

Private equity firms’ financial extraction, cost-cutting, and evasive practices pose unique risks for their portfolio companies along the fossil fuel supply chain, for those companies’ workers, and for the communities in their vicinity. Financial resources that should go towards capital improvements, maintenance, or retaining adequate levels of qualified staff have at times been siphoned to Wall Street investors, with disastrous consequences.[16] Private equity firms’ lack of investment and disregard of environmental regulations has led to oil spills and air pollution, worker injuries, and pollution from refineries and chemical plants that have spewed contaminants to neighboring communities.[17]

These business practices can intensify harm to low- income communities, communities of color, and Indigenous peoples worldwide. Black, immigrant, Indigenous and low-income communities in North America, alongside residents in other countries with a history of colonial rule are especially at risk. These communities have long been subject to environmental injustices stemming from the location of polluting projects and extractive industries, and they are increasingly vulnerable to climate change.[18] Lack of access to affordable healthcare —exacerbated by the intersection of factors like gender, race, ethnicity, income level, and the history of dispossession and slavery—compounds the problem.[19]

Methodology

Methodology and Research Process for Portfolio Company Verification (Deals and Companies)

Since private equity firms do not provide comprehensive disclosures of current or former investments, the PECR research team has built a data set based on a variety of sources. We conducted an initial query of energy holdings from January 1, 2013 to September 1, 2023 via the private markets data provider Pitchbook.[20] Researchers then drew on company websites, press releases, SEC and other regulatory filings, and news articles to identify additional companies and build a data set of verified private equity portfolio company investments.

Private equity firms invest in portfolio companies through various strategies including leveraged buyouts, majority stake investments, minority stake investments, control or non-control investments, credit or lending investments, joint ventures, via intermediaries or directly, and others. The precise nature of each investment arrangement is often not disclosed, but these investments all provide capital to portfolio companies that enable their operations and the associated emissions and environmental impacts. The 21 firms’ current energy portfolio reflects the private equity firms’ financial interests via any one or more financial strategies listed above to “invest in,” “own,” or “back” each portfolio company, thereby facilitating the activity of the company and its assets, and financing the company’s emissions.

[0]  Cuvelier, Laraet al. Reclaim Finance, The Sunrise Project, Sierra Club.  “Who’s Managing Your Future?” Available  https://www.sierraclub.org/sites/www.sierraclub.org/files/2023-06/Asset_Manager_Report_V5.pdf. Accessed June 6, 2024.

[1]
Private Equity Stakeholder Project and Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund. “Private Equity Climate Risks Scorecard 2022.” Private Equity Climate Risks. September 2022. https://peclimaterisks.org/1039-2/.
[2] Storrow, Benjamin. “The top 10 emitting power plants in America”. E&E News. Published Aug 23, 2022 https://www.eenews.net/articles/the-top-10-emitting-power-plants-in-america/
[3] “About us.” Colonial Pipeline Company. Accessed Jan 26, 2024. https://www.colpipe.com/about-us
[4] Giachino, Alyssa and Riddhi Mehta-Neugebauer. “Private Equity Propels the Climate Crisis.” Private Equity Stakeholder Project. October 2021. https://pestakeholder.org/reports/private-equity-propels-the-climate-crisis-the-risks-of-a-shadowy-industrys-massive- exposure-to-oil-gas-and-coal/; Giachino, Alyssa, Alex Hurley, Riddhi Mehta-Neugebauer, Amanda Mendoza, Alyssa Moore, and Oscar Valdés Viera. “The Carlyle Group’s Hidden Climate Impact: Exposing a Decade of Fossil Fuel Investments.” Private Equity Climate Risks. April 2023. https://www.peclimaterisks.org/the-carlyle-groups-hidden-climate-impact/; Valdés Viera, Oscar, Patrick Woodall, Mariam Zahran, and Stephanie Apollon. “Private Equity Ownership of U.S. Power Plants: A Hidden Climate Threat.” Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund. May 2022. https://ourfinancialsecurity.org/2022/05/report-private-equity-ownership-of-u-s-power-plants-a-hidden-climate-threat/.
[5] van Daalen, Kim R, et al. “The 2022 Europe report of the lancet Countdown on health and climate change: towards a climate resilient future.” Countdown. Volume 7, Issue 11, e942-e965. November 2022. https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2822%2901540-9.
[6] United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner. “‘Intolerable tide’ of people displaced by climate change: UN expert.” Press Release. June 23, 2022. https://bit.ly/3ymkh5R.
[7] Rosen, Julia. “The Science of Climate Change Explained: Facts, Evidence and Proof.” New York Times. Published April 19, 2021. Updated November 6, 2021. Accessed July 21, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/article/climate-change-global-warming- faq.html?auth=login-email&login=email; Fountain, Henry. Climate Change Is Accelerating, Bringing World ‘Dangerously Close’
to Irreversible Change.” New York Times. Published December 4, 2019. Updated November 10, 2021. Accessed July 31, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/04/climate/climate-change-acceleration.html; Fountain, Henry. “How Bad Is the Bootleg Fire? It’s Generating Its Own Weather.” New York Times. Published July 19, 2021. Updated Dec. 17, 2021. Accessed July 31, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/19/climate/bootleg-wildfire-weather.html; O’Connor, M.R. “What It’s like to Fight a Megafire”. The New Yorker. November 8, 2021. Accessed July 31, 2023. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/11/15/what-is-it-like-to-fight-a-megafire.
[8] Perez, M.Wairiu, and K. Zickfeld. 2018. Framing and Context. In: Global Warming of 1.5°C. An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways, in the context of strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change, sustainable development, and efforts to eradicate poverty [Masson- Delmotte, V., P. Zhai, H.-O. Pörtner, D. Roberts, J. Skea, P.R. Shukla, A. Pirani, W. Moufouma-Okia, C. Péan, R. Pidcock, S. Connors, J.B.R. Matthews, y. Chen, X. Zhou, M.I. Gomis, E. lonnoy, T. Maycock, M. Tignor, and T. Waterfield (eds.)]. 2018. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New york, Ny, USA, pp. 49-92. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009157940.003.
[9] For more see: Morran, Chris and Daniel Petty. “What Private Equity Firms Are and How They Operate.” ProPublica. August 3, 2022. Accessed July 3, 2023. https://www.propublica.org/article/what-is-private- equity#:~:text=Private%20equity%20firms%20invest%20the,taking%20controlling%20stakes%20in%20companies.
[10] Blackstone. “The life Cycle of Private Equity.” August 2020. Accessed July 3, 2023. https://pws.blackstone.com/apac/education-insights/article/the-life-cycle-of-private-equity/.
[11] Prete, Ryan. “How private equity firms make money.” PitchBook. September 8, 2021. Accessed July 31, 2023. https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/how-private-equity-firms-make-money.
[12] For more on private equity general practices see: Americans for Financial Reform. “America for Sale? An Examination of the Practices of Private Funds.” Testimony Submitted to the Committee on Financial Services US House of Representatives. November 19, 2019. https://ourfinancialsecurity.org/2019/11/congressional-testimony-2/; Appelbaum, Eileen and Rosemary Batt. “A Primer on Private Equity at Work: Management, Employment, and Sustainability.” February 2012. https://cepr.net/report/primer-on-private-equity/; Morran, Chris and Daniel Petty. “What Private Equity Firms Are and How They Operate.” ProPublica. August 3, 2022. Accessed July 3, 2023. https://www.propublica.org/article/what-is-private- equity#:~:text=Private%20equity%20firms%20invest%20the,taking%20controlling%20stakes%20in%20companies.
[13] Pitchbook. “US PE Breakdown. 2021 Annual.” At p. 33. Accessed July 31, 2023. https://files.pitchbook.com/website/files/pdf/2021_Annual_US_PE_Breakdown.pdf.
[14] Ayash, Brian and Mahdi Rastad. “leveraged Buyouts and Financial Distress.” California State Polytechnic University. July 19, 2019. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3423290; Giachino, Alyssa. “Private Equity-Backed Companies Dominate 2020 Oil and Gas Bankruptcies.” Private Equity Stakeholder Project. January 28, 2021. Accessed June 7, 2023. https://pestakeholder.org/news/private-equity-backed-companies-dominate-2020-oil-and-gas-bankruptcies-2/.
[15] Morton, Matthew D. “Strategies to Protect your Fund from Portfolio Company Environmental liability.” Global Private Equity Watch. March 28, 2016. Accessed July 31, 2023. https://privateequity.weil.com/features/strategies-protect-fund-portfolio-company- environmental-liability/; levitin, Adam. “Private Equity’s Abuse of limited liability.” Credit Slips. August 27, 2019. Accessed July 31, 2023. https://www.creditslips.org/creditslips/2019/08/private-equity-abuses-limited-liability.html.
[16] Renshaw, Jarrett. “Before fire, Philadelphia refinery scaled back big maintenance project: sources.” Reuters. June 26, 2019. Accessed
July 23, 2023. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-refinery-blast-philadelphia-maintenan/before-fire-philadelphia-refinery-scaled-back- big-maintenance-project-sources-idUSKCN1TR2NP; Renshaw, Jarrett. “Refiner goes belly-up after big payouts to Carlyle Group.” Reuters. February 20, 2018. Accessed July 23, 2023. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biofuels-pes-bankruptcy-insight/refiner-goes-belly- up-after-big-payouts-to-carlyle-group-idUSKCN1G40I1.
[17] First-Arai, leanna. “The Price of Private Equity’s New york Power Plant Grab.” The Nation. September 13, 2022. Accessed July 31, 2023. https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/private-equity-power-plants-new-york/; Salamone, Anthony. “Talen Energy-owned power plants hit with third bankruptcy since 2014. lehigh Valley company says no changes seen to local.” operations.” The Morning Call. July 2, 2020. Accessed July 31, 2023. https://www.mcall.com/2020/07/02/talen-energy-owned-power-plants-hit-with-third-bankruptcy- since-2014-lehigh-valley-company-says-no-changes-seen-to-local-operations/; Villarosa, linda. “Pollution Is Killing Black Americans. This Community Fought Back.” New York Times. July 28, 2020. Accessed July 23, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/28/magazine/ pollution-philadelphia-black-americans.html; Giachino, Alyssa, Alex Hurley, Riddhi Mehta-Neugebauer, Amanda Mendoza, Alyssa Moore, and Oscar Valdés Viera. “The Carlyle Group’s Hidden Climate Impact: Exposing a Decade of Fossil Fuel Investments.” Private Equity Climate Risks. April 2023. https://www.peclimaterisks.org/the-carlyle-groups-hidden-climate-impact/; Renshaw, Jarrett. “Before fire, Philadelphia refinery scaled back big maintenance project: sources.” Reuters. June 26, 2019. Accessed July 23, 2023. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-refinery-blast-philadelphia-maintenan/before-fire-philadelphia-refinery-scaled-back-big- maintenance-project-sources-idUSKCN1TR2NP; Renshaw, Jarrett. “Refiner goes belly-up after big payouts to Carlyle Group.” Reuters. February 20, 2018. Accessed July 23, 2023. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biofuels-pes-bankruptcy-insight/refiner-goes-belly- up-after-big-payouts-to-carlyle-group-idUSKCN1G40I1; Americans for Financial Reform. “Private Equity’s Chemical Catastrophe in Texas.” December 2019. https://ourfinancialsecurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/AFREF-FWW-PEs-Chemical-Catastrophe.pdf; Villarosa, linda. “Pollution Is Killing Black Americans. This Community Fought Back.” New York Times. July 28, 2020. Accessed July 23, 2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/28/magazine/pollution-philadelphia-black-americans.html.
[18] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. “Synthesis Report for the Sixth Assessment Report during the Panel’s 58th Session held in Interlaken, Switzerland from 13-19 March 2023.” See section “2.1.2 Observed Climate System Changes and Impacts to Date” at pp. 11-17. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/syr/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_SyR_longerReport.pdf.
[19] Hill, latoya, Nambi Ndugga, and Samantha Artiga. “Key Data on Health and Health Care by Race and Ethnicity.” KFF. Annual update published on March 15, 2023. https://bit.ly/3OGyTVw.
[20] Pitchbook. “About.” Accessed July 2023 through November 2023. Available at: https://pitchbook.com/about