* Private equity funds Carlyle, CVC to back venture
* Neptune to make one or two deals - Laidlaw (Adds quotes, details)
By Ron Bousso
LONDON, June 9 (Reuters) - The former boss of British energycompany Centrica Sam Laidlaw will head a new $5 billionfund backed by private equity firms Carlyle Group and CVCCapital Partners to buy oil and gas assets worldwide.
The London-based platform, Neptune Oil and Gas, will focuson investing in large-scale fields and companies in the NorthSea, North Africa and Southeast Asia struggling in the wake ofthe sharp drop in oil prices over the past year.
Laidlaw, who stepped down as Centrica's chief executive latelast year, said the fund aimed to complete one or two large dealtotalling around $5 billion within the next two years to build anew exploration and production (E&P) company of 75,000-100,000barrels per day, similar to the output of London-based TullowOil.
"Very few people have actually invested in scale becausethere haven't been any large-scale private equity funds reallydevoted to international E&P," Laidlaw told Reuters on Tuesday.
A raft of oil and gas assets have been put up for sale inrecent months as energy firms ranging from majors Royal DutchShell and Total to small explorationcompanies seek to boost balance sheets.
"The timing is good, a lot of the super majors are goingthrough portfolio restructuring and national oil companies mightbe pulling back because of the lower oil price," Laidlaw said.
Global private equity firms in recent years have formed anumber of partnerships led by high-profile industry executivesin a bid to turn around assets by introducing efficiencies andcost cutting.
Siccar Point is headed by former Conoco and Centricaexecutive Jonathan Rogers, while Scotland-based Verus Petroleumis led by Alan Curren, a North Sea veteran with Wood Group andLundin Petroleum.
"We're expecting to deliver value through improvingefficiencies, adding reserves, improving operating uptime andbringing in new technologies to ensure we can deliver asensitive risk return on that basis," Laidlaw said.
"This isn't a bet on the oil price, because it could be withus for a while," he added, referring to recent lower prices.
Carlyle International Energy Partners (CIEP), focused oninvestments outside the United States, has been among the mostactive private equity funds in recent months.
It raised $2.5 billion earlier this year, giving itinvestment firepower of $10 billion.
Last month, Varo Energy, a joint venture between CIEP andthe world's top commodities trading house Vitol, merged withDutch-based storage and trading company Argos to form one ofEurope's largest refining and trading businesses.
The private equity partnerships have not always succeeded.Fairfield, backed by investment fund Riverstone, decided todecommission its North Sea Dunlin Alpha platform after failingto make it profitable. (Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter)
