The party is far from over. Midstream players continue to draw significant interest from investors who are happy to finance multiple debt and equity deals in excess of $1 billion each, some of which are used to finance major acquisitions or roll out new master limited partnerships.

In the debt markets, midstream operators announced at least five deals in the past six weeks worth an average of more than $1 billion each. Energy Transfer Equity LP reported the largest credit facility— a $2.3 billion syndicated deal it will use to fund a portion of its acquisition of Southern Union Co. The deal is expected to close in first-quarter 2012, when it closes the acquisition of Southern Union Co. The purchase of Southern Union is one of the most contentious in recent memory, after Williams Co. made a series of unsolicited bids that pushed up the acquisition price.

A second debt deal was Ruby Pipeline LLC's announcement that it had completed $1.08 billion in financing for senior-unsecured notes offered to a limited number of institutional buyers. The debt will be used to repay existing senior-secured credit.

The equity market for midstream operators was also active over the past six weeks, with at least two major upstream operators announcing midstream spinoffs into master limited partnerships.

Another significant equity deal announced over the past six weeks was Cheniere Energy Partners LP, which will receive $2 billion in financing from The Blackstone Group LP to fund the construction of a natural gas export plant in Sabine Pass, Louisiana.

The facility was originally built to import natural gas at a time when conventional wisdom in the energy industry indicated that the U.S. faced a severe shortage of natural gas. Since the discovery of additional reserves and the steep decline of gas prices, the strategy now is to export natural gas to other markets where prices are up to five times the U.S. price.

Blackstone's injection of capital is only the first step. The project will cost between $4.5 billion and $5 billion to build the first two of four liquefaction trains. Construction is expected to begin in the first half of 2012.

The need for additional midstream assets continues to make the entire sector attractive for acquisitions. During the previous six weeks, midstream operators announced at least 10 acquisitions collectively worth $9.25 billion.

El Paso Corp. announced it will sell its exploration and production business to a consortium led by private-equity firm Apollo Global Management LLC for $7.15 billion. The announcement was not a big surprise because El Paso is in the middle of a separate acquisition by Kinder Morgan Inc. and had already stated its intention to sell off its upstream operations.

Elsewhere, Linn Energy LLC announced it will acquire the Hugoton field in southwestern Kansas for $1.2 billion from BP America Production Co. The deal includes the Jayhawk 450 million cubic feet per day natural gas processing plant.

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