Newly

US Infrastructure Holdings LLC (USI) is buying the Wildcat Sabine Gathering System in the Bossier-Haynesville Shale. The newly constructed 28-mile pipeline runs along the Texas-Louisiana border in the northwest corner of Sabine Parish, LA, and gathers and transports gas for producers including Eagle Oil & Gas Co., which has dedicated acreage from its North Toledo Bend Project. The system has takeaway capacity of 200 MMcf/d and includes treating and compression facilities. USI said it will begin construction of a 20-mile extension at the southern end of the Wildcat system to provide producers with direct access to markets served by Gulf South Pipeline Co. LP and Tennessee Gas Pipeline. The expansion will bring Wildcat’s takeaway capacity to 400 MMcf/d and is expected to be complete by mid-2012.

A newly signed contract for the liquefaction and export of domestically produced natural gas lends further credibility to the shale gas optimism that has swept the energy industry in recent years.

Houston-based High Point Gas Transmission LLC (HPGT), a newly formed company focused on the offshore, is seeking FERC approval to purchase 617 miles of pipeline and associated facilities located onshore and offshore Louisiana from Southern Natural Gas Co. LLC.

Houston-based High Point Gas Transmission LLC (HPGT), a newly formed limited liability company, is seeking FERC approval to purchase 617 miles of pipeline and associated facilities located onshore and offshore Louisiana from Southern Natural Gas Co. LLC.

A newly formed joint venture (JV) of Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. and Avista Capital Partners has closed its first acquisition: 15,000 net acres in the Utica Shale in eastern Ohio and northwestern Pennsylvania at an average cost of less than $1,500/acre, Carrizo said. The deal is the second announcement from the company in the same week as it strengthens its finances to plow ahead in the shales.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has named a former Boots & Coots executive to lead a newly created oilfield services unit that will house the producer’s growing business and complement its massive U.S. drilling program.

Michael Bromwich, who now leads the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), has been tapped to take over the newly formed Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) until a permanent director is named, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Friday.

Morgan Stanley Private Equity has taken a majority stake in newly formed Sterling Investment Holdings LLC, the firm and Sterling Energy Co. said Thursday. The move is intended to support growth of Sterling Energy’s midstream business in Colorado and North Dakota.

Calling newly proposed air emission standards to be imposed on the oil and gas industry an “overreach,” industry groups on Friday continued to lobby the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to rethink its plans. In fact, the Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC) warned that the standards could stifle natural gas production, which could promote the use of other less-clean energy sources.