Asian commodity trader Noble Group and private equity firm EIG Global Energy Partners this week announced a joint venture, Harbour Energy, that will seek to buy operating companies world-wide in the oil and gas exploration and production, gathering, processing and transmission sectors.

The deal is part of a larger effort by Noble to focus on its trading business while relying on partners to handle production of physical commodities. Singapore-listed Noble has formed two other joint ventures over the last year to deal with production of commodities in the agriculture and mining sectors. In both cases, it teamed with buyout shops.