• Parks & Luttrell Interests LLC has been formed by Jack Parks and Terry Luttrell, who sold their two-year-old Parks & Luttrell Energy Partners LP in 2001 for more than $26 million. The new E&P venture will focus on acquire-and-exploit opportunities in the southern U.S., and has received $49.6 million in funding commitments from Houston-based private-equity provider Quantum Energy Partners, which had invested $9 million in the earlier partnership.



• Privately held Black Diamond Minerals LLC, Denver, has been formed with a $40-million commitment from private-equity firm Natural Gas Partners to acquire and develop assets primarily in the Rockies and onshore California. The company was formed by Scott Hall and Ward Giltner and has acquired assets in the Green River Basin in Wyoming from entities formerly controlled by Hall and Giltner.

Bob Lamarre will be vice president of exploration. He was a geologist with Texaco and involved in the discovery of the Drunkards Wash Field in central Utah. Margaret Leiser will be vice president, business development. She was a landman with Texaco. Rivington Capital Advisors LLC and affiliate Rivington Securities LLC were financial advisors.



• Merrill Lynch Capital has launched a loan shop to provide senior debt to energy companies and aims to develop a multibillion-dollar portfolio in the space. The unit's team consists largely of former Bank of America/Bank Boston and JP Morgan/Chase professionals who are credited with issuing more than $40 billion of senior debt in four years. "We understand the need to provide credit consistency through the cycles," says Greg O'Brien, managing director, energy finance, Merrill Lynch Capital, Boston, of the unit's approach to upstream finance.



• Scott Zimmerman is taking leave as president and chief executive of Storm Cat Energy Corp., Denver, (Amex: SCU; Toronto: SME) for personal reasons. Keith Knapstad has been named acting president and CEO. He was chief operating officer.



• Panhandle Royalty Co., Oklahoma City, plans to change its name to Panhandle Oil and Gas Inc. to better reflect that it is involved in exploration. It will continue to trade on Amex as PHX. "Panhandle has been assumed to be operating as a royalty trust in many instances, based on its name," the company reports. The company has also doubled share-issue authorization to 24 million to use for acquisitions, mergers and stock splits.



• Financial services and risk-management firm AIG Financial Products Corp. plans to get directly into gas marketing by buying 50% interest in Tenaska Energy's Tenaska Marketing Ventures, Tenaska Marketing Canada and Tenaska Gas Storage. The price wasn't disclosed. Tenaska's marketing business is cited as among the top 10 in North America. AIG-FP and Tenaska will jointly guarantee payment obligations.



• The U.S. Senate Finance Committee is talking about whether to tax private-equity funds' profits as income, as opposed to taxing them at the lower, capital-gains rate, as is done under current law. Private-equity groups have come under increased Congressional scrutiny since they are unregulated and have grown significantly.

In response, 10 of the top buy-out companies, including The Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group and Texas Pacific Group, have formed a new Washington lobby, the Private Equity Council. The president and chief executive is Doug Lowenstein, who was in a similar lobbyist position for the video gaming industry.



• The Wells Fargo Energy Advisors name has been retired and the M&A advisory unit is now part of investment-banking division Wells Fargo Securities LLC. Tom Hedrick remains managing director and head of M&A activities.



• Jacques Rousseau, Friedman Billings Ramsey's integrated oils, refining and ethanol analyst in Virginia and a senior vice president, has left the firm for personal pursuits. Eitan Bernstein has assumed coverage of some of the companies in Rousseau's universe.



• ElectroMagnetic GeoServices plans an IPO of 18.5 million shares on the Oslo Stock Exchange as EMGS. Private-equity firm Warburg Pincus and other existing shareholders are offering 13 million of the shares. The deal is expected to raise between US$80- and US$100 million. At closing, Warburg Pincus will hold a 63% stake in the company, assuming full over-allotment placement.

Goldman Sachs International is global coordinator for the offering. ABG Sundal Collier, Goldman Sachs International and Lehman Brothers are joint book-runners, with Carnegie and DnB Nor Markets as co-lead managers.

EMGS provides a patented seabed logging service that was invented by its executives, and has conducted more than 200 commercial surveys for offshore operators including BP, Chevron, ENI, Norsk Hydro, ONGC and Petrobras. Its 2006 revenues were US$117.7 million, up 167% from 2005.



• True Energy Trust, Calgary, (Toronto: TUI-UN) has received an unsolicited reorganization proposal from privately owned hedge fund Lawrence Asset Management Inc., Toronto. True plans to vote March 30 on reorganization into an E&P company. Lawrence is calling for True to be split into a trust operating in blow-down mode and a new E&P company from 500,000 acres that are producing some 1,000 BOE per day.

True says the Lawrence plan is based on a number of unsubstantiated market assumptions and includes a highly conditional $40-million rights offering. The company owns more than 1.1 million gross acres (730,000 net) of undeveloped land and has drilling inventory of more than 600 locations in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. Production is 11,500 BOE per day, primarily in the Kerrobert, Willesden Green and Ferrier areas.

Tristone Capital Inc. and National Bank Financial Inc. are financial advisors and FirstEnergy Capital Corp., Orion Securities Inc. and Peters & Co. Ltd. are strategic advisors to True.



• Halliburton Co., Houston, (NYSE: HAL) plans to move its corporate headquarters from Houston to Dubai, UAE. Halliburton chairman, president and chief executive Dave Lesar will move to Dubai to lead the company's efforts in the Eastern Hemisphere. Lesar says, "The Eastern Hemisphere is a market that is more heavily weighted toward oil exploration and production opportunities and growing our business here will bring more balance to Halliburton's overall portfolio."



• Riverstone Holdings LLC has named John J. Moon managing director. Previously, Moon was a managing director at New York-based Metalmark Capital LLC. Greg Myers, managing director, is Moon's successor at Metalmark. Riverstone invests private equity in energy from its $3.8-billion Global Energy and Power Fund III LP and in renewable energy from its $685-million Renewable Energy Infrastructure Fund I LP.



• Townes Pressler has joined the Lime Rock Partners investment team as a managing director in the Houston office. He was co-founder of Peregrine Oil & Gas and an adviser at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, chief operating officer of Credit Suisse's Houston office, and a managing director at Harrison Lovegrove & Co.



• Dahlman Rose & Co. LLC, New York, has named Kevin Mack managing director of investment banking, focusing on maritime and offshore services. He was chief executive and head of U.S. corporate finance for Danske Markets Inc.



• Colorado Utah Natural Gas Inc., Reno, Nev., a development-stage oil and gas company, has withdrawn its IPO plans of 3 million shares at $10 each. Since August 2004, the E&P has acquired oil and gas leases containing proved undeveloped reserves in Utah. During August/September 2005 it drilled three wells to the Morrison formation. Two wells have been completed and are awaiting pipeline connection, while the third is awaiting completion. No reason was given for the withdrawal.



• Law firm Thompson & Knight LLP, Dallas, has formed Houston-based subsidiary Thompson & Knight Global Energy Services LLC to provide international energy-consulting services. Renato T. Bertani, former president of Petrobras America Inc., will head the new firm.



• Atlas America Inc., (Nasdaq: ATLS) a Philadelphia-based E&P company, has formed Lightfoot Capital Partners LP with $160 million. Partners include Chicago-based hedge fund Magnetar Capital, the global principal strategies group of Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs & Co. and a management team led by Vincent Cubbage, formerly managing director and sector head of master limited partnerships in the investment-banking division of Banc of America Securities LLC.



Jonathan Cohen, vice chairman of Atlas America, is chairman of Lightfoot; Cubbage is CEO. The firm will concentrate on MLP-qualified assets such as infrastructure, coal and other categories and intends to form new MLPs in sectors that have been under-utilized by the MLP structure. Atlas America will own, directly and indirectly, approximately 18% of Lightfoot Capital Partners GP LLC.



• Privately held Talon Oil & Gas LLC, Dallas, has been formed with $160 million from management, affiliates of EnCap Investments and Citigroup Private Equity to acquire and exploit assets in the Southern U.S. with emphasis on the Permian Basin, Midcontinent, East Texas-North Louisiana and South Texas areas. The company will evaluate opportunities ranging up to $500 million in size.

Talon's management has played key roles in building and selling various energy companies including Coda Energy Inc., Belco Oil & Gas Corp., Westport Resources Corp. and Kerr-McGee Corp.

Grant Henderson is president of Talon. He was president of Coda, president and chief operating officer of Belco, executive vice president of Westport and vice president, Southern U.S. E&P, for Kerr-McGee.



• Spinnerhawk Capital Management, Dallas, has named Jim Wicklund partner and chief investment officer. He was with Bank of America Securities LLC as a managing director and a senior research analyst in the equity research department, covering oilfield services, equipment and drillers. He was also with Dain Rauscher Inc. as head of energy research.



• Houston-based privately held investment firms Tudor Capital Partners LLC and Pickering Energy Partners Inc. have formed an energy investment- and merchant-banking boutique: Tudor, Pickering & Co. LLC.

Tudor Capital partner Bobby Tudor will be chairman and chief executive. He was a partner with investment-banking firm Goldman Sachs. Alexandra Pruner will be chief financial officer and was formerly an energy investor-relations professional.

Pickering Energy founder Dan Pickering is head of research. He was head of research for Simmons & Co. International. Pickering Energy partners Dave Pursell and Christine Drusch are partners in the new company.



• Quicksilver Gas Services LP, a subsidiary of Quicksilver Resources Inc., Fort Worth, Texas, (NYSE: KWK) has filed for an IPO of 3.4 million common units for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $67.5 million.

Quicksilver Gas will gather and process gas from the Barnett shale in the Fort Worth Basin in North Texas. The company will own a pipeline system in the southern portion of the Fort Worth Basin and a gas-processing plant in Hood County, Texas.

At closing, Quicksilver Resources expects to retain common units and subordinated units representing an approximate 75% limited-partner interest, and the entire 2% general-partner interest. UBS Investment Bank and Goldman, Sachs & Co. are book-running lead managers.

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