The government-owned Gabon Oil Company (GOC) has acquired the assets of Assala Energy, the oil and gas business of US private equity firm Carlyle in the African state.

Gabon’s second-largest producer, Assala has seven onshore production licenses in Gabon – six of them operated - along with a pipeline network and the Gamba export terminal.

GOC and Caryle signed on Thursday the share purchase agreement, which is in line with the strategy to revitalise the oil and gas sector, according to a statement on Friday.

Gabon is one of the largest oil producers in sub-Saharan Africa. It seeks to increase its production to 220,000 barrels per day.

GOC is looking to position itself as a major upstream player. It is currently in talks to acquire new technologies to boost production and optimise mature fields.

French oil company Maurel & Prom (M&P) had previously signed an SPA to acquire the Assala assets, but GOC later exercised its sovereign pre-emptive rights to take over Assala itself.

The European firm acknowledged in a statement on Friday that the new deal signed by GOC and Carlyle has now superseded its previous SPA, hence it is no longer acquiring Assala.

(Writing by Cleofe Maceda)