• Universal Compression Holdings Inc., Houston, (NYSE: UCO) subsidiary Universal Compression Partners LP (Nasdaq: UCLP) has priced its IPO of 5.5 million common units at $21 each. The original price range was $19 to $21 each. Proceeds of about $99.4 million will be used to pay debt. Merrill Lynch & Co. and Lehman Brothers were joint book-running managers and Wachovia Securities was joint lead manager. A.G. Edwards and Deutsche Bank Securities were co-managers.



• Privately held Broad Oak Energy Inc., Dallas, has received an equity commitment of up to $150 million from company management and Warburg Pincus, New York, to acquire, explore and develop oil and gas on the Texas Gulf Coast, and in North Louisiana and New Mexico. Initially, the company is concentrating on tight gas in South Texas and North Louisiana.

Broad Oak chairman and chief executive David Braddock was an executive with Pioneer Natural Resources. President John Coss was vice president of acquisitions at Pioneer and exploration manager at Conoco. Vice president of operations Robert Skinner held that title at Camden Resources.



• GeoMechanics International Inc., a reservoir-geomechanics consulting firm, has formed Houston-based E&P company R2R Technologies LLC to explore unconventional reservoirs in the Lower 48. Jeff Barndt is president of R2R. He led M&A evaluation teams for Jefferies (Randall & Dewey), and was previously with Amoco.



• Forest Oil Corp., Denver, (NYSE: FST) has transferred the majority of its Alaska business unit to a new subsidiary, Forest Alaska Operating LLC. It has approximately 32 million BOE of estimated proved reserves, and production of approximately 6,000 BOE per day as of Sept. 30. It also owns 186,000 net acres of developed and undeveloped land and interests in production and drilling infrastructure, primarily offshore Cook Inlet.

H. Craig Clark, president and chief executive, says, "This allows us to segregate the financial requirements of a long-lived oil asset in the middle years of its productive life from the financial requirements of our other North American assets, which are in various stages of exploitation and necessarily more capital intensive. We are excited about the prospects for both the Alaska assets and the remaining core assets within Forest and...to segregate and finance them separately."



• Houston-based Post Oak Energy Capital has been formed to make equity and equity-related debt investments in the energy industry domestically and internationally. Managing directors are Clint S. Wetmore and Frost W. Cochran. Also in management are Robert H. Walls and Philip A. Davidson. Wetmore was with Royal Dutch Shell's global M&A group; Cochran was chief executive of Appalachian E&P company Belden & Blake; Walls was Enron's post-bankruptcy general counsel; and Davidson was a managing director of Rice Capital. Post Oak recently launched a co-investment agreement with Chicago-based alternative-investment firm Magnetar Capital.

• Private-equity firm NGP Energy Capital Management, Irving, Texas, reports that Barclays Capital, the investment-banking division of Barclays Bank Plc, has purchased a 40% stake in the firm.

The investment gives Barclays an asset in the North American energy capital-management business, and gives NGP an investor with a global presence.

NGP chief executive Ken Hersh says, "...In such a global industry as energy, we felt the need to align ourselves with an investor who would position us for whatever the future holds. The energy industry is becoming more complicated each day and is influenced by economic and political events worldwide. An investment by Barclays Capital now gives us access to all of the world's leading economies."

Roger Jenkins, head of principal investing and private equity at Barclays Capital, says, "We see energy as one of the most dynamic and interesting private-equity investment areas over the next 10 to 15 years. We sought a way to jump-start our presence in the direct energy-investment business. [NGP] met all of our criteria, and we are thrilled to make the investment."



• Pritchard Capital Partners LLC, New Orleans, has named Stephen A. Landry managing director and head of corporate finance. He was senior vice president and chief financial officer of W&T Offshore Inc. (NYSE: WTI), and senior vice president of energy corporate finance for Jefferies & Co. Inc.



• ING Investments LLC has launched ING Risk Managed Natural Resources Fund (NYSE: IRR), a non-diversified closed-end fund that invests equity in energy and other natural-resources companies. The fund raised $415 million in an IPO. Citigroup Global Markets Inc. was sole book-runner and lead manager, and Merrill Lynch and A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. were co-lead managers.



• Houston-based Stallion Oilfield Services Inc. has withdrawn its filing for a $287.5-million IPO. Lehman Brothers, Credit Suisse and UBS Investment Bank were underwriters. Stallion provides wellsite support services and construction and logistics services to E&P companies throughout the U.S.

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