Eagle Ford Shale midstreamer Southcross Energy Partners LP, which filed for Chapter 11 restructuring earlier this year, has been given approval to sell some natural gas pipeline and infrastructure assets in South Texas to a unit of Kinder Morgan Inc.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in late October gave permission to sell the gas pipeline network in Corpus Christi, TX, to Kinder Morgan Tejas Pipeline LLC for $76 million. The assets include the Corpus Christi Pipeline Network and the Bay City Lateral.

Kinder said the assets help to boost options for liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, among other things.

“We continue to focus on opportunities to increase our natural gas connectivity to meet LNG facilities, Gulf Coast power, industrial and petrochemical demand,” said Kinder Morgan Natural Gas Midstream President Sital Mody. “These assets are a nice complement to our existing Texas portfolio of assets and allow for further connectivity on our Texas Intrastate system.”

Southcross also was given permission to sell the Magnolia Infrastructure Holdings LLC assets in Mississippi and Alabama for $31.5 million.

Once the sales are completed, expected by year’s end, Southcross plans to reorganize and focus on its South Texas gathering and processing operations, which include the Lancaster and Valley Wells facilities, as well as the Lone Star, Woodsboro and Bonnie View plants.

“Following a comprehensive review of available alternatives and working closely with our lenders, we determined that the best path forward for our gathering and processing operations is to complete the reorganization process and emerge as a stronger, more profitable standalone business,” CEO James W. Swent III said.

“Our facilities are well positioned in the Eagle Ford Shale area…With the court’s approval of our asset sales, along with this go-forward focus on our gathering and processing operations, we have made significant progress in our court-supervised process toward maximizing the value of our assets and achieving the best outcome for our stakeholders.”

Southcross recently acquired from subsidiary Southcross Holdings LP the Lancaster Gathering and Treating System, which includes a sour gas gathering and treating system serving producer customers in Frio, La Salle, Zavala, Dimmit, Atascosa, and McMullen counties.

The Lancaster system has more than 650 miles of sweet and sour gas gathering pipeline with treating capacity of 90 MMcf/d; an acid gas injection well with 200 MMcf/d of capacity and 800 hp of associated compression; and three segments of 12-inch diameter pipeline crossing Bee and Refugio counties.

Until the transactions close, Southcross would continue operating as it has through the court-supervised process.