Infrastructure investors BlackRock, Brookfield and Apollo are intensifying their push into the oil and gas infrastructure market, urging the world’s largest energy companies to offload pipelines, storage terminals and midstream networks as public-market support weakens and valuations remain low.
At a closed-door meeting ahead of Adipec in Abu Dhabi, the heads of ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, Eni and BP were told that equity markets “are not as receptive” and that selling infrastructure assets at 10–12x earnings, rather than trading at 4–7x, could unlock billions in cheaper capital for reinvestment.
Saudi Aramco has already embraced the trend. In August, it completed an $11bn sale-and-leaseback of its Jafurah gas network to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP)—now owned by BlackRock—and is considering further disposals amid strong inbound interest from sovereign wealth funds and private capital. Abu Dhabi, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait have also launched or explored similar transactions, marking a shift as state oil companies open their asset bases to foreign investors.
According to Evercore’s head of energy EMEA, the Aramco deal has triggered a wave of interest from both state-owned oil groups and global infrastructure funds seeking exposure to long-term, contracted revenue assets. As expectations grow that the energy transition will take longer than anticipated, fossil-fuel infrastructure has become a prime target for private capital backed by long-duration insurance money seeking stable returns.
While state oil companies are moving fastest, international oil companies (IOCs) are beginning to respond. Shell sold its stake in the Colonial Pipeline to Brookfield in a deal valuing the asset at $9bn, and BP divested part of the Trans-Anatolian pipeline to Apollo for $1bn.
Analysts argue the influx of infrastructure capital will pressure the IOCs to adapt. As David Waring, head of energy in Emea at Evercore noted in an article in the Financial Times of 30th of November 2025: “Can the IOCs afford to operate within the confines equity markets impose, without considering more innovative solutions?”