Genel Energy is an oil company based in Turkey. It has its exploration and production operations in Iraq

Iraq

Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....

i Kurdistan with plans to expand its activities into other Middle East and North African countries.

Genel Energy plc was created in 2011 as a result of the reverse acquisition of Turkish Genel Enerji by Tony Hayward

Tony Hayward

Anthony Bryan "Tony" Hayward is a British businessman, the former chief executive of oil and energy company BP. He replaced John Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley on 1 May 2007. His tenure ended on 1 October 2010 in large part due to the circumstances of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill...

 led investment company Vallares. Vallares was set up by Tony Hayward, financier Nat Rothschild

Nathaniel Philip Rothschild

Nathaniel Philip Victor James Rothschild , also known as Nat, is a British-born financier who has settled in Switzerland, and a scion of the prominent Rothschild family. He is the Chairman of "JNR Limited", an investment advisory business primarily focused on emerging markets and the metals, mining...

 and banker Julian Metherell. Genel Enerji is controlled by Mehmet Emin Karamehmet

Mehmet Emin Karamehmet

Mehmet Emin Karamehmet is a Turkish businessman. He is the Chairman of Turkey's Çukurova Holding conglomerate and is the richest man in Turkey with a personal fortune estimated at US$4 billion....

 through Çukurova Group (56%) and Mehmet Sepil's family (44%). In 2009, Genel Enerji planned merger with Heritage Oil

Heritage Oil

Heritage Oil is an independent Jersey-based oil and gas exploration and production company. Its activities are focused on Africa, the Middle East and Russia. It is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. It has a secondary listing on the Toronto Stock Exchange....

; however, the deal subsequently collapsed.

Tony Hayward is CEO of Genel Energy while former CEO of Genel Enerji Mehmet Sepil will President of the new company. The Board includes former deputy chief executive of BP

BP

BP p.l.c. is a global oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest energy company and fourth-largest company in the world measured by revenues and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors"...

 and chairman of Petrofac

Petrofac

Petrofac is an international provider of integrated facilities services to the oil, gas and energy production and processing industries. It is registered in Jersey , with its main corporate office in Jermyn Street, London. In addition it has major offices in Aberdeen, Mumbai, and Sharjah, and a...

, Rodney Chase.

50% of Genel Energy is owned by investors of Vallares. The company will seek a premium listing in early 2012 at the London Stock Exchange

London Stock Exchange

The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...

.