Japan’s Marubeni Corp. said it has sold some of its stakes in Eagle Ford Shale assets to two undisclosed oil and gas developers. Financial details also were not provided. The sale is part of a plan to strengthen the bottom line, it said. Marubeni in 2012 acquired a 35% interest in Hunt Oil Co.’s South Texas portfolio, which gave it 52,000 net acres. The producers agreed at the time to acquire more acreage in the Eagle Ford. Marubeni also has acreage in the Denver-Julesburg Basin, and it works in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

Tallgrass Energy GP LP(TEGP) has agreed to acquire Tallgrass Energy Partners LP (TEP) in an all stock deal. TEGP would acquire 47.6 million TEP common units from the public in exchange for 2 TEGP Class A shares for each outstanding common unit. As a result, TEP’s incentive distribution rights would be cancelled and its common units would no longer be publicly traded. The merger is expected to close by 2Q2018. TEGP would change its name to Tallgrass Energy LP and trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “TGE.” CEO David Dehaemers Jr. said “eliminating TEP’s incentive distribution rights will immediately improve our cost of capital and will enhance our ability to compete for, and the returns generated by, acquisitions and organic growth projects.”