KKR & Co., the New York-based private-equity firm, said it would back energy industry veteran Roland Wessel to create a new European producer of onshore oil and gas in places with proven reserves using enhanced oil recovery techniques such as horizontal drilling.

KKR will potentially make more than €150 million ($169 million) available to Mr. Wessel's Trans European Oil & Gas Ltd. to buy oil and gas fields and companies, a person familiar with the transaction said. Mr. Wessel previously founded Star Energy, an owner of 25 oil and gas fields that was sold in 2008 to Malaysian state oil company Petroliam Nasional Bhd., or Petronas.

KKR is among private-equity firms pursuing energy deals after oil prices fell from highs of around $114 a barrel in 2014 to lows of under $50 this year, making assets cheaper. In May, KKR invested in Mexico's Monterra Energy. In June, Washington-based Carlyle Group and London's CVC Capital Partners Ltd. teamed up to back Sam Laidlaw, former Chief Executive of U.K. energy company Centrica PLC, to lead Neptune Oil & Gas Ltd., which is focusing on opportunities from the North Sea to North Africa and southeast Asia.

"We hope to be able to pay realistic prices for assets given the lower oil price. We made very good money with oil at $50 a barrel at Star Energy," Mr. Wessel said in an interview. "Right now we are looking at central and eastern Europe. We haven't got any specific boundaries. We will look at the U.K., France and Germany."

New York-based Blackstone Group LP last year moved Mustafa Siddiqui to London to lead the firm's energy activities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Blackstone has since teamed with Blue Water Energy to invest in Siccar Point Energy, a new North Sea oil company.

In January, KKR hired Haroun van Hö vell as head of its energy team in Europe, the Middle East and Africa as part of the firm's expansion plans outside the U.S.

"We believe there is a significant opportunity to build a portfolio of conventional onshore oil and gas properties in Europe," Mr. van Hö vell said Tuesday.

Write to Simon Clark at simon.clark@wsj.com

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 22, 2015 10:35 ET (14:35 GMT)

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