Gabon Oil Company, the national oil and gas company of the African nation of Gabon, agreed to acquire Assala Energy, an energy company acquiring mature oil and gas assets in Africa, from The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, for $1.3bn. Assala Energy holds seven onshore production licenses in Gabon – of which it operates six – along with a pipeline network and the Gamba export terminal. Representing the country’s second-largest producer, the company has concentrated on brownfield assets in Gabon and implemented high-quality maintenance, risk management, workovers and well interventions to maximize production from mature fields.