• Myra A. Dria, president, and Keith A. Zimmerman, vice president, business development, have formed Ristra Energy LLC, Houston. Dria was previously with BP as New Mexico asset manager, and with Amoco, Schlumberger, Western Atlas, Shell Oil and Sohio. Zimmerman was previously with Schlumberger, Amoco and Sohio and most recently held the positions of country manager in Ecuador for Schlumberger and Amoco and country manager for Amoco in Russia. The E&P company's focus is Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico. • Alan Blackburn, Jed DiPaolo and Jonathan Hough have joined Growth Capital Partners LP, Houston. Blackburn is managing director and head of the firm's energy practice; DiPaolo is an energy partner; and Hough is a new vice president. Blackburn was with CIBC and Merrill Lynch; DiPaolo was a senior executive with Halliburton; and Hough was with Deutsche Bank Securities. Growth Capital Partners' energy practice provides corporate-finance services including M&A advisory, capital-raising and restructuring services to high-quality middle-market oil-service and E&P companies. The firm also has offices in Dallas; Austin, Texas; and Greenwich, Conn. • E&P analyst John White is now part of the equity research team of Harris Nesbitt Gerard, the U.S. institutional brokerage and investment banking arm of Harris Nesbitt. As part of a U.S.-wide rebranding and integration effort, the Houston-based energy team of BMO Nesbitt Burns is now operating under the Harris Nesbitt name. • Texas State Bank, McAllen, Texas, has opened a branch office in Houston. Keri Worbington, vice president, heads the expanded energy-lending effort, which was organized this summer. Worbington was formerly with Credit Suisse First Boston and Prudential Securities. The bank closed its first reserve-backed credit in August for privately held Houston-based Probe Resources Inc. Texas State Bank will focus on loans up to $20 million. Separately, Ed Marhanka has joined Texas Capital Bank in Dallas as vice president, senior petroleum engineer. Marhanka was formerly with Bank of Texas in Dallas as vice president, senior petroleum engineer and administrator, and with Toreador Resources Corp. as vice president, engineering, U.S. operations. • Deutsche Bank Securities is building up its U.S. equity energy research team by relocating Paul Sankey and Nick Aldridge from Edinburgh, Scotland, to New York City. The analysts will cover global large-cap integrated oils. Jay Saunders will continue to cover the North American midcap integrated oils and refiners. JJ Traynor will continue to be the lead analyst on U.S. large-cap stocks. Caroline Cook, Nick Griffin and Traynor will continue covering the Pan-European oil stocks. • The Northern Alliance of Independent Producers has been formed to represent producers doing business in North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana. Contact Robert Harms at 701-224-5037.